Category Archives: Energy and Climate Change

News and articles on climate change, vehicle pollution, and renewable energy.

Cable opens Cleaner Vehicles Centre

November 12, 2014Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and CommentTrevor Larkum

Business Secretary Vince Cable has announced further funding of £32 million for two new projects to research electric motors manufacturing technology for electric vehicles and develop cleaner internal combustion engines, during a visit to officially open the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) headquarters at the University of Warwick.

The two new projects are led by Jaguar Land Rover. They will be part of the projects announced this year that will safeguard 2,500 jobs, in the £1bn industry and government commitment to turn low carbon propulsion technology into products developed in the UK.

The APC projects committed so far will reduce CO2 emissions equivalent to the output of 250,000 cars per year over the next decade.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said:

“Green technology will drive the cars of the future and UK designers and manufacturers must continue to be leading innovators in this field. That’s why we’ve collaborated with industry to provide £1billion joint investment in the Advanced Propulsion Centre – one of the driving forces behind our automotive industrial strategy.”

“The APC will be the hub for projects as diverse as using motorsport braking systems in buses, and streamlining the production of electric motors. It’s these kind of initiatives that will enable our automotive sector to raise the bar in innovation, give businesses the confidence to invest and create high skilled jobs.”

Speaking at the opening of the APC Hub at the University of Warwick, Chief Executive Tony Pixton said:

“The Advanced Propulsion Centre is now active as an enabler for low carbon propulsion development and production in the UK. Today’s news confirms we are on track to support and create more than 30,000 UK jobs over the next decade, cutting CO2 emissions and driving exports.”

“We are delighted to welcome the Business Secretary and Co-Chair of the Automotive Council, Dr Vince Cable MP to the APC Hub to announce the latest investments and launch the next funding competition in our ten year programme of investments. The APC is leading the development of the UK as a Propulsion Nation as we expand from the Hub with the announcement of the new London Spoke, in conjunction with Loughborough University and adjacent to the proposed Centre of Excellence for Digital Engineering and Test.”

The APC helps forge partnerships between those who have good ideas and those who can bring them to market. The services provided by the APC enable projects which provide profitable growth and sustainable opportunities for the partners involved and contribute to the UK’s economic prosperity.

Loughborough University in London welcomed the news that the first APC Spoke will be located at its premises on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park campus.

Vice Chancellor and President of Loughborough University, Robert Allison, said:

“We are delighted that Loughborough University in London is to host this first, and highly important, Spoke of the Advanced Propulsion Centre.”

“Loughborough University has been training automotive engineers since 1919 and our research in powertrain engineering, propulsion and manufacture is recognised as world-class. Powertrain and propulsion development is a key strategic area for Loughborough: indeed earlier this year we announced a five-year investment of £1.5 million in research appointments, which will help us to develop the new advanced propulsion technologies required for the move to zero emission vehicles. We are therefore exceptionally well-placed to support this very important and hugely exciting development.”

Announcements about further spoke locations, funding competitions and the development of the APC team will be made in the coming months.

Source: Newspress

Have your say on the London Ultra Low Emission Zone

November 7, 2014Electric Cars, Electric Vans, Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and CommentTrevor Larkum

London’s air quality has improved significantly in recent years and is now considered compliant for all but one air pollutant for which the European Union has set legal limits. This pollutant is nitrogen dioxide (NO2), which has impacts on public health. London is currently in breach of legal limits. An equivalent of 4,300 deaths in London is attributed to air quality related illness. The Capital also faces challenging targets to mitigate the effects of climate change.

This means further action is needed to reduce air pollutant and CO2 emissions from transport to improve quality of life and public health. In recognition of this, the Mayor and Transport for London (TfL) have developed a proposal for an Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) in central London.

The ULEZ would require all vehicles driving in central London to meet new exhaust emission standards (ULEZ standards). The ULEZ would take effect from 7 September 2020, and apply 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. A vehicle that does not meet the ULEZ standards could still be driven in central London but a daily charge would have to have been paid to do so.

The ULEZ would include additional requirements for TfL buses, taxis (black cabs) and private hire vehicles (PHVs):

A requirement that all taxis and new private hire vehicles presented for licensing from 2018 would need to be zero emission capable

A reduction in the age limit for all non zero emission capable taxis from 2020 from 15 to 10 years (irrespective of date of licensing)

Investment in the TfL bus fleet so that all double deck buses operating in central London will be hybrid and all single deck buses will be zero emission (at source) by 2020.

Ending the oil age

November 3, 2014Energy and Climate Change, OpinionTrevor Larkum

Big Oil’s days are numbered – but the industry could still take us all down with it. From divestment to disruption, Jess Worth explores how the transition to an oil-free future is being hastened.

Leave the oil in the soil! Indigenous representatives from communities resisting oil extraction all over the world marched together at the front of the recent 400,000-strong New York climate march (Image: J. Pope/Bold Nebraska)

In September 2014, the $860 million Rockefeller Foundation made an historic announcement. Timed to coincide with massive marches for climate action all over the world, the fund revealed it was going to divest from fossil fuels. Following in the footsteps of the World Council of Churches, the British Medical Association and Stanford University, the latest major institution to make such an announcement is also the most symbolic. Because the Rockefeller fortune owes its very existence to oil.

The Rockefeller story is also the story of the rise and fall of the first ‘oil major’. Standard Oil, founded by John D Rockefeller in 1870, soon came to control the burgeoning US oil industry, from extraction to refining to transportation to retail.

It built an unprecedented monopoly that ultimately became so publicly despised that the US government stepped in and broke it up – birthing Exxon, Mobil and Chevron, among others. But by then, Standard had already set the Western world on a path to oil dependence that we are still shackled to, chain-gang-style, today.

The forced break-up created the Rockefeller millions. A century later, those millions are being used to make a dramatic point: we are witnessing the beginning of the end of the oil age.

Electric Cars: The Next Health Kick?

November 1, 2014Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, OpinionTrevor Larkum

A 2013 MIT study concluded that in the United Kingdom more people suffer premature deaths from breathing in auto emissions than from auto accidents

Back in the 1980s, I interned at the EPA. An older employee told a story of a public hearing to illustrate how Americans are confused in their thinking about risk. The EPA was proposing a cleanup solution for a toxic waste dump which would reduce risk of premature death down to one in one million residents.
A local resident stood up and passionately argued that any risk was unacceptable, no matter the cost. “EPA has to reduce risk to zero,” she exclaimed to rousing applause.

Following the hearing, she went outside and lit up a cigarette – increasing her risk of premature death much greater than living next to this superfund site.

Americans are great at hating some risks and ignoring others.

One risk that we have collectively ignored is the health impact of automobile emissions.

Where there is combustion, there are bi-products which severely impact the human respiratory system. These emissions can cause coughing, lung irritation, lung cancer and cardiovascular disease. They can cause or contribute to premature death in the young, the elderly and individuals with respiratory issues, such as asthma, as well as cause pulmonary problems in developing fetuses.

Cars are a significant source of these pollutants. In a number of states, including my home state of New Jersey, car and truck emissions are the largest source of air pollution – greater than the power sector or industry. And in all states, pollution is elevated close to roads. The US EPA, asserts that the concentration of Nitrogen Oxide is 30 to 100 percent greater closer to highways.

So how dangerous are these emissions? Probably greater than you think.

A 2013 MIT study concluded that in the United Kingdom more people suffer premature deaths from breathing in auto emissions than from auto accidents. Closer to home, the California Air Resource Board estimates that more than 9000 California deaths a year are caused by air pollution from cars and trucks. And the American Lung Association and Environmental Defense Fund released a study in May that argues that a transition to electric cars in California would prevent 600 heart attacks and 38,000 asthma attacks annually in that state alone.

11 Charts that will help you understand climate change

October 30, 2014Energy and Climate Change, OpinionTrevor Larkum

Every year a disparate collection of 88 wonks from 68 organisation in 12 countries work tirelessly to produce the Global Carbon Budget.

I think of it as a high powered pictured book alternative for anyone who can’t stomach the IPCC’s summary for policy makers (or just wants the data).

Here are 11 of the most thought provoking charts from this year’s report:

1) Carbon emissions are still going up

Carbon emissions are still going up (Image: ShrinkThatFootprint)

Another 2.3% in 2013 with projections that it will rise a further 2.5% in 2014.

2) Coal is the major source of growth

Coal is the major source of emissions growth (Image: ShrinkThatFootprint)

Coal was responsible for 59% of emissions growth in 2013, oil was 18%, gas 10%, and cement 12%.

Why You Should Be Afraid Of Climate Change In 10 Charts

October 26, 2014Energy and Climate Change, OpinionTrevor Larkum

It’s almost universally agreed now that climate change is caused by humans and it’s on track to wreak havoc on the planet.

Scientists release new studies every year (if not every month) demonstrating the effects climate change has already had on the Earth and projecting the damage it will cause in the future. Storms, droughts, floods, famines, and mass extinctions are just a few of the consequences in store for our home if humans don’t do something about the problem – and fast.

We’ve put together these charts, taken from some of these studies, to help you visualize just how real the effects of climate change are. These are just a few of the reasons you should be very, very afraid.

Nothing is left unscathed.

As this chart from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) March 2014 working group report shows, climate change will hit everything from the polar ice caps to our bank accounts.

The colorful icons show what kinds of effects have been observed so far around the world, and the little bars next to the icons show how much confidence scientists have that the effects were caused by climate change. In the Arctic and other parts of North America, for example, scientists have high confidence that glaciers, snow, ice, and permafrost are melting due to global warming.

But warming doesn’t just impact weather: It changes the environments in which we grow our foods, changes the ecosystems in which the fish we eat live, increases the likelihood of wildfire, erodes the coastlines, and causes drought that robs populations of their water sources.

Climate Change Impacts (Image: Business Insider)

…

Sea levels will rise.

As sea ice continues to melt, all that excess water will cause sea levels to rise. This spells disaster for coastal areas, which will inevitably flood as the water level creeps up.

This IPCC Fifth Assessment chart shows how much sea level rise scientists expect will be caused by a variety of different factors, including the melting of large ice chunks like the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. The chart also factors in thermal expansion – water’s tendency to increase in volume as it gets warmer.

The gray section on the chart shows how much sea levels will rise when all of these factors are lumped together. This projection shows sea levels rising by nearly half a meter (that’s 1.5 feet) or more by 2100.

Global Mean Sea Level Rise (Image: Business Insider)

Climate Change: An Age-Old Argument

October 4, 2014Energy and Climate Change, OpinionTrevor Larkum

Source: Skeptical Science