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Green Notes - 19 Mar 08

By Chinthana ⋅ March 19, 2008 ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

• The maiden voyage of the Beluga SkySails appears to be a big success. Bremen-based Beluga Shipping CEO Niels Stolberg praised SkySails’ ability to save both carbon emissions and fuel costs–up to $1,000 per day if the wind conditions are right. SkySails has developed enormous kite-like sails that can cut fuel usage and reduce the carbon emissions of cargo ships up to 30 percent by switching to wind power when conditions are right.
• Japanese households and businesses could end up paying over $500 billion over the next decade to reduce emissions by 11%, according to the trade and industry ministry. A long to-do list to achieve that low emission level by 2020 includes solar panels being placed on the roofs of 70 percent of new homes, a 15-percent improvement in fuel efficiency of autos and a jump in nuclear power-generated electricity to 45 percent of supply from 30 percent currently. Japan’s estimated total emissions by 2020 would be at 4 percent below the levels in 1990, the base year under the Kyoto Protocol.
• According to UK government figures, business computing is responsible for 2.8m tonnes of CO2 emissions a year. The UK’s total emissions are just over 554.5m tonnes. Office equipment (of which computers make up about a third) is responsible for 15% of the emissions from a typical office. The solution: Computing should be moved away from data centres in the city to where sustainable power is plentiful, suggests a Cambridge University Professor. Since it is easier and more efficient to transfer information than to transfer power across great distances, Hopper suggests moving server centres closer to the source of the energy.
• “The Government is failing to reduce its carbon footprint, a new report reveals.” - telegraph.co.uk. The report says nearly two thirds of Government departments are still not on track to meet carbon reduction targets of 12.5 per cent by 2010, although overall carbon emissions from offices have fallen 4% since 1990. The press association adds that “emissions from departmental road travel increased last year by 1.5%, showing “no progress” towards the 15% reduction by 2010/2011 set by the Government.” Rebecca Willis, vice chair of the Sustainable Development Commission, said that the slow progress being made across Whitehall was undermining its attempts to encourage businesses and other organisations to cut their carbon footprint. “There is a credibility problem,” she said. “We expect government to lead the way and not rather grudgingly trudge along behind.”