- 74 cities in 62 countries commit to Earth Hour 2009
- Earth Hour aims to reach one billion people in 1,000 cities around the world
- Economic downturn an opportunity to steer economy into safer sustainable future
74 cities in 62 countries are announcing their commitment to switch off for WWF’s Earth Hour in 2009. The campaign, which hopes to reach out to more than one billion people in 1,000 cities around the world, asks individuals, businesses and governments to switch off lights for just one hour on Saturday March 28 at 8:30pm to create a platform of support for action on climate change.
Earth Hour aims to demonstrate unprecedented solidarity and provide a visual mandate for action on climate change.
The lights out initiative, which began in Sydney in 2007 as a public awareness raising campaign, has grown significantly over the past two years and now has 74 cities ready to flick the switch in 2009. Cities already committed include Moscow, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, London, Hong Kong, Sydney, Rome, Manila, Oslo, Cape Town, Warsaw, Lisbon, Singapore, Istanbul, Mexico City, Toronto, Dubai and Copenhagen.
At 8.30 pm on Saturday March 28, the world will witness some of the most recognisable landmarks on the planet dim the lights in support of decisive action on climate change. Icons switching off include the world’s tallest building in Dubai – the Burj Dubai, the tallest free-standing structure in the Americas - the CN Tower in Toronto, Moscow’s Federation Tower and in Rome – Quirinale - the official residence of the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano.
Auckland’s Sky Tower – the tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere will go dark, joined by Australia’s iconic sails of the Sydney Opera House and across in Cape Town, South Africa, the iconic Table Mountain will mark Earth Hour by turning off its flood lights.
Director General of WWF International Jim Leape said, “When leaders gather in Copenhagen in December 2009 to negotiate a new deal on climate they must feel that the eyes of the world are upon them.”
“Earth Hour provides an opportunity for the public to send a powerful signal that they are watching and expect action,” said Mr Leape.
Executive Director of Earth Hour Global, Mr Andy Ridley said, “Recent events have shown that the world can unite in a time of crisis. The global economic crunch is an example where, when it matters, decisive multi-lateral action by powerful nations has been shown to be achievable.”
Mr David Miller, Mayor of Toronto and chair of the C40 Large Cities Climate Leadership Group said, “The C40 Climate Leadership Group is about cities working together to drive down greenhouse gas emissions and that is why as Chair of the C40 I support Earth Hour. It's crucial that cities and the public come together to take action against climate change and Earth Hour provides a great platform to do that.”
Mr Ridley also said 2009 was the planet’s ‘destiny year’, with critical decisions needed to be made at the Copenhagen meeting on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
“2009 is the year we decide the future of the earth. It is the year when the world meets to agree on a plan to reduce carbon emissions across the globe. This is the time to invest in new ways of doing business in a new low carbon economy. We must all step over the line together if we are to succeed.”
The extensive WWF conservation network also has more than 30 teams working in countries such as Brazil, Greece, India, Peru, Spain, Switzerland and France, ready to support a local Earth Hour roll out.
Earth Hour is a global WWF climate change initiative. Individuals, businesses, governments and communities are invited to turn out their lights for one hour on Saturday March 28, 2009 at 8:30 PM to show their support for action on climate change. The event began in Sydney in 2007, when 2 million people switched off their lights. In 2008, more than 50 million people around the globe participated. In 2009, Earth Hour aims to reach out to 1 billion people in 1,000 cities.
WWF is one of the world’s largest and most respected independent conservation organizations, with almost five million supporters and a global network active in more than 100 countries. WWF’s mission is to stop the degradation of the earth’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world’s biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.
Source: WWF
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WWF’S EARTH HOUR SPARKS WORLDWIDE UNITY
WWF wades in onto carbon capture debate
The World Wide Fund for Nature, once upon a time known and World Wildlife Fund, the world's biggest environmental charity has recently called for a moratorium on new coal-fired power stations in the UK until carbon capture and storage technology has been shown to work and can be installed from the outset.
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is the process of trapping a power station's emissions at source and pumping it into suitable underground sites - often the empty spaces left by drilling oil.
CCS can, however, only be seen as a stop-gap solution in the transition to clean energy generation but as yet no large-scale demonstration projects have come to fruition.
In the UK, the government has said that all new coal-fired power stations must be 'carbon capture ready', or suitable for the retro-fitting of the technology at a future date, which effectively means very little.
"Currently, claims of CCS readiness do little more than refer to the need for power plants to leave space on the site for CCS equipment to be retrofitted in the future," said Keith Allott, head of WWF-UK's climate change programme.
"There's no deadline for conversion to full scale CCS, let alone any guarantee that this would then be met. Reliance on an as yet unproven technology, however promising it may be, is a risky business - the future of the planet's climate cannot rely upon good intentions.
"To avoid dangerous climate change, there needs to be a rapid decarbonisation of the power sector and a radical shift in the way in which the UK and indeed the world sources its energy.
"Renewables and greater energy efficiency should form the bulk of that shift, but fossil fuels using proven and strongly legislated CCS could also play a role."
The charity has commissioned researchers at Edinburgh University to explore what 'capture ready' actually means and how best to ensure that readiness translates into action on CCS.
The findings are detailed in a WWF report, Evading Capture.
WWF is calling for the introduction of an emissions standard similar to that already in force in California, which will set legal limits on the amount of CO2 that new and replacement power stations can emit.
While no one seems to talk about it there should be a way, and I am sure that there is, one that would not even involve that mush effort, to make the burning of coal in power station a much cleaner effort. Scrubbers could, for starters, be employed with which to remove the sulfur and other elements. This is already being done in other countries. So if it can work there then it should be able to work here assuming the political will is there.
In addition to that why do we have to use coal anyway in such power stations? There should be, once again with the right political will, for a large number of years at least, enough wood to burn in such station if we would be just prepared to do a “Dutch Elm Disease eradication program”. Such a program would yield lots of seasoned elm wood for such stations, a very clean burning wood of very great heat value.
This, as a stop-gab, during which time cleaner energy still could be looked at, developed and put on stream.
We also, and this is most important, get away pronto from the large electricity generating power stations in this country currently and get over to power generating at a much more local level and that for more than one reason. The studies and suggestions from the book “Small is Beautiful” by Fritz Schumacher should be a guide in this. The floods of 2007 and the fact that those came close to shutting down power for hundreds of thousands should be a reminder of the fact that large power stations are a disaster waiting to happen.
And local electricity generation then gives the chance for clean energy generation at a local level, whether by CHP units, fuelled by wood chips, straw, methane, etc. or by wind, solar and water; all can be used.
Due to the fact that local power generation does not require the long overland lines the power generated can be of a much, much lower AC voltage than what must, by needs, be the kind from the huge power plants.
We must, in everything, and this includes heat and power, think local rather than regional or bigger even. Tine we cut things down to size again.
M Smith (Veshengro), June 2008
Scientists urge Government: tougher CO2 cuts
Monday 21 January 2008
WWF-UK has enlisted the support of Britain's leading environmental scientists to call on the Government to commit to tougher carbon emission cuts in the Climate Change Bill in an open letter to the Government in five major UK newspapers.
David Nussbaum, chief executive of WWF-UK, said: "The Government has a unique opportunity to set an example to the rest of the world by introducing groundbreaking legislation on climate change."
"Today some of Britain's most eminent climate and environmental scientists have added their voices to the growing calls for emission cuts based on the latest science - that means cuts of at least 80% by 2050," he said.
Open letter to Government: UK newspapers
The letter is written by the current Chair of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (RCEP), Sir John Lawton, and his predecessors, Sir Tom Blundell, Chair at the time of the 2000 report as well as Sir John Houghton and also the Foreign Member of the US National Academy of Sciences Professor Norman Myers. The scientists have signed the letter in their personal capacity.
The open letter to the leaders of the main political parties is published in today's The Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Independent.
The letter explains the need to cut the UK's CO2 emissions by at least 80% by 2050, outlining how the Government's current target of a 60% reduction in the UK's CO2 emissions by 2050 is based on an out of date report by the (RCEP) published in 2000.
Call for 80% CO2 emissions cut
Sir John Houghton, the first Chair of Scientific Assessment for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said: "The UK has always been proud of its leadership in the issue of climate change. To keep in the lead, the Government needs to keep in step with the science that is now strongly pointing towards cuts in emissions of at least 80% by 2050 if we are to mitigate against dangerous climate change. Furthermore there is convincing modelling to show that these cuts are achievable and affordable."
Scientific reports
The recent report, 80% Challenge: Delivering a low carbon Britain, published jointly by WWF-UK, Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), found that it is technically feasible and affordable for the UK to cut its CO2 emissions by at least 80% by 2050 - including our share of emissions from international aviation and without using new nuclear power.
Alternative solutions could lie in energy efficiency and a rapid roll out of renewable and decentralised energy, potentially combined with fossil fuel power stations equipped with working carbon capture and storage.
Recent statements by Sir Nicholas Stern, the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and the UN Human Development Report 2007/2008 also make clear that developed countries must make emissions reductions of at least 80% by 2050.
WWF-UK is also calling on the UK Government to include emissions from international aviation and shipping in the Climate Change Bill.
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