BBC NEWS | Talk about Newsnight | How green is your government Minister?

Worth going to the site for an intersting discussion on carbon neutral schemes:

BBC NEWS | Talk about Newsnight | How green is your government Minister?

The Government makes a lot of its new green credentials. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown jointly launched Sir Nicholas Stern’s report on the potentially apocalyptic consequences of global warming and, to underline the government’s commitment, it announced a climate change bill in the Queen’s speech.

Indeed, back in May Mr Blair appointed a Minster with special responsibility for climate change. He is Ian Pearson, the MP for Dudley South, and yesterday I shared a platform with him at a conference on sustainable development.

It was my job to open the conference. I ran through some of the things my family and I have been doing as Ethical Man and then I set the delegates a little ethical living test. I asked a series of questions about their lifestyles including whether they had made the switch to a green electricity supplier.

It was one of the first things I did after I was coerced by my editor into becoming Ethical Man and it did more to cut the carbon footprint of our home that any of my other ethical exertions.

For a small premium, our new supplier guarantees that, for every unit of electricity we use, it will buy a unit of electricity from a renewable source. According to my carbon guru, Professor Tim Jackson of University of Surrey, switching supplier will cut the annual carbon emissions my family is responsible for by about one ton – that’s ten per cent of our total emissions.

This was a pretty green audience and a good few of them had signed up with green suppliers or had opted for one of the green tariffs offered by most electricity companies. So had the Minister done the same I wanted to know?

Imagine my surprise when Mr Pearson admitted he hadn’t. The Minister of State for Climate Change and the Environment said that he was in the process of doing so.

Given that changing to a green electricity supplier or opting for a green tariff takes a single telephone call and a couple of minutes I trust he has done so now. If not here are a few contacts for you Ian: you could see if your current electricity company offers a green tariff or could contact Good Energy, Ecotricity, Green Energy UK or any of the other green electricity companies in the country.

Oh, and do tell me how you get on.

ExxonMobil's view of the never-changing world | FP Passport

ExxonMobil's view of the never-changing world | FP Passport: "ExxonMobil's view of the never-changing world
Home » blogs » Travis Daub
Fri, 12/15/2006 - 2:47pm.
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Andrew Penner/ Istockphoto

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ExxonMobil's view of the never-changing world

Home » blogs » Travis Daub

Fri, 12/15/2006 - 2:47pm.

Andrew Penner/ Istockphoto

For ExxonMobil, the world is rapidly changing, but somehow their business will stay exactly the same. What follows are facts gleaned from ExxonMobil’s The Outlook for Energy, A view to 2030 (PDF)

• "Most of the world's growing energy needs by 2030 will continue to be met by oil, gas and coal." Today, 80% of the energy we use comes from fossil fuel. Exxon doesn't expect that number to change.
• The world will require "about 60%" more energy in 2030 than it does today. That's a total consumption of 325 million barrels per day.
• Non-OECD nations will account for 80% of that increase.
• In 2000, non-OECD countries drove roughly 100 million cars. By 2030 they’ll drive 500 million.
• If the world were not moving towards more efficient use of energy, our energy use in 2030 would be 100% higher than it is today. Good thing we're so efficient.
• By 2030, wind and solar will only account for 1% of all energy produced.
• By 2030, 30% of all new vehicles sold will be hybrids or other high-efficiency vehicles.
• Biofuels will make up only 2% of all liquid fuels by 2030, Bio-Willie notwithstanding.
• The USGS estimates there are around 3.2 trillion barrels of oil that can be extracted from the world. ExxonMobil sees around 4 trillion as economically recoverable.
• Corn-based ethanol is a non-starter. By 2012, the U.S. will burn up 21% of the U.S. corn crop to create 3% of our fuel. Exxon chortles: "...this provides some perspective on its ultimate potential as an alternative fuel supply."
• Cellulose is also too complicated to turn into fuel. The process involves enzymes and other things oil men find unfamiliar and strange. President Bush was foolish to tout the energy potential of switchgrass.
• Natural gas will become more popular than any other fuel, and most of it will be used in power generation.
• CO2 production will increase at exactly the same rate as energy consumption.
• There are four opportunities to reduce carbon emissions: nuclear power, advanced vehicles and fuels, carbon capture, and "breakthroughs."
• ExxonMobil helped establish (via a $100 million grant) Stanford Univeristy’s Global Climate and Energy Project. ExxonMobil hopes Stanford will provide some breakthroughs.