News you might have missed: 29 May 2009

Looking for a quick update on cleantech news and developments as the weekend approaches? Here you go:

• A coalition of groups including Oxfam, the World Development Movement, the RSPB, the Woodcraft Folk and the National Union of Students have organised a 4 July protest at Kingsnorth, site of a planned new coal-fired power plant;
• Speaking in Bergen, Norway, this week, Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the International Energy Agency said a “business-as-usual” approach to carbon dioxide emissions “puts the world on track for an unsustainable global temperature increase (PDF) of around 6 degrees Celsius by the end of the century”;
• The World Bank has approved $600 million (US) for Turkey’s Private Sector Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Project, along with a $125 million loan to the Republic of Belarus to support a $193.10 million Energy Efficiency Project;
• According to Waste Watch, not enough companies are aware of what they can be doing to recycle electrical equipment such as computers and laptops;
• Nokia Siemens Networks reports that it cut its real estate CO2 emissions by 13 per cent in 2008;
• Boys outperform girls in school science in the UK more than in any other developed country, a study shows. The OECD analysed results from 57 countries in its 2006 PISA study of 15-year-olds;
• Mergers and acquisitions define the European waste management market, according to new analysis from Frost & Sullivan;
• A “Life Cycle Impact Assessment” has shown that a biofuel eliminating even 10 per cent of current gasoline pollutant emissions would have a substantial impact on human health in the US, especially in urban areas;
• A team of researchers from the University of Cantabria has developed a statistical model that makes it possible to study the variability of extreme waves throughout the year, according to the journal Coastal Engineering. The study has shown that there are seasonal variations in the height of waves reaching Spain’s coasts, and stresses the importance of this data in planning and constructing marine infrastructures;
• The world’s most powerful neutron source should be built in Lund, Sweden, it has been announced by EU Research Ministers;
• The Guardian reports that the mood at this week’s Carbon Expo conference in Barcelona is upbeat as most expect a deal at Copenhagen;
• The global economic downturn and a growing trade in sovereign emissions rights are combining to create a “perfect storm” that threatens to derail already sluggish efforts to cut greenhouse gases in poor countries, Reuters reports;
• Interpol warns that organised crime syndicates are eyeing the nascent forest carbon credit industry as a potentially lucrative new opportunity for fraud;
• A new report has suggested that the Government’s target of reducing carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 will not be possible without cutting down vehicle carbon emissions further.