Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Carbon Trust maps emissions 'flow' of traded goods

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Very interesting map of carbon emissions....Also interested to see the reference to 'Britains borders' in the passage below*. Carbon emissions dont of course acknowledge national borders - the boundary/boundaries of carbon emissions systems is effectively fixed by human choices such as those who do the carbon accounting for the governments and various other organisations and the choices they make may not be particularly rational. Who is responsible for imported goods carbon emissions - those who demand and consume the goods or those who produce and supply them? Or should the emissions be split between them? How much does or should it matter?

...All of which is interesting for carbon geeks like me. But in terms of policy implications, it's the prediction of UK's future carbon footprint that raises the biggest flag. According to the Carbon Trust's estimates, the UK's total footprint, including imported goods, will fall only slightly by the mid 2020s, even if all of its major trading partners hit their stated carbon reduction targets. If major exporters such as China, India, Russia and Brazil achieve only half the expected level of decarbonisation, the UK's footprint will actually be higher in 2025 than it is today, despite substantial savings within Britain's own borders*.

As Guy Shrubsole of the Public Interest Research Centre put it: "Until government starts accounting for outsourced emissions officially, it's continuing to tell a convenient lie about the true scale of our carbon addiction."

Carbon Trust maps emissions 'flow' of traded goods Duncan Clark Environment guardian.co.uk

Lib Dem discussions with Labour, Tory AND Green groups on the council

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Interesting update on goings on at Bristol City Council in this* Post report, particularly on the town green and on green spaces. One correction: it says
'Her [Barbara Janke's] statement comes after discussions with the Labour and Tory groups after the Lib Dems lost their majority in this month's local elections.' when discussions were in fact held with Labour, Tory AND Green groups - we do exist y'know - and in larger numbers than before - though you'd rarely know it given the Post's coverage.

*http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Janke-Ashton-Vale-stadium-decision-month-green-spaces-sell-halted/article-3564838-detail/article.html

Very rich to make frequent use of the term green in her statement I thought. There is little evidence at all that Bristol has in general become a greener city over the decades - and plenty of evidence that we've become less green eg much larger total carbon footprint per person and per city, just like the UK on average, larger divsions of wealth between rich and poor... Plus of course conventional politics barely seems to recognise the economic and social dimensions of being green much of the time - it still needs to make the jump that green is far beyond trees, cuddly animals and recycling... (one of the reasons conventional politics has failed to really address deep rooted interconnected problems).