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News & Views From the Front Line
Thursday, 11 December 2008
Lord Smith on climate change and the CCC report
In this podcast from edie, Chris Smith, Environment Agency Chairman talks to the Environmental Industries Commission. Unlike the usual blandishments you get from the 'great and the good', there is some greath stuff in here, including a brief review of the Climate Change Committee's recent report detailing the ways the UK can meet a 80% cut in carbon emissions.
Speaking of the CCC report, I have only had a chance to quickly scan through the 500 plus pages of dense analysis, but I've copied the graphs showing proposed cuts below. What I find strange is the lack of contribution from industry given that so many of our industrial processes are incredibly energy inefficient. The report puts this down to limited 'low or no cost options', but given the costs of the massive decarbonisation of electricity generation required to fulfil this scenario, I believe that some of that money might be better spent driving down demand.
Labels: adair turner, climate change, energy, environment agency
# posted by Gareth Kane : 08:49
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Friday, 7 November 2008
Warning: Phoney Environment Agency Inspector
This came from BERR via NEPIC, so I assume it is not a hoax:Dear All
The Environment Agency has alerted us that someone claiming to be from the EA has been trying to gain access to certain oil refineries and chemicals plants. The individual concerned has tried to gain access to installations regulated under PPC and COMAH. The person has used three names so far Barry Thorpe, Alex Ross and Keith Johnson but all with the same mobile number.
EA Regional Directors have been advised to make contact through their PPC teams with the sites that they regulate to advise them of these approaches and to inform them if others occur, so that we can hopefully track down the individual. The police have been informed.
Thanks
Chris Barrell,
Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform
Labels: environment agency, news
# posted by Gareth Kane : 17:24
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Friday, 5 October 2007
SME awareness of legislation still poor, but improving
This year's NetRegs survey of UK Small and Medium Enterprises has shown a sudden jump in awareness of environmental issues and legislation - but the overall result is still poor. Only one in four small business owners can name one piece of environmental legislation that applies to them - despite the fact that all businesses have a duty of care for their waste and all are expected to recycle their Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE). The only good news is that this is up from one in seven last year.Something I have come across this year is unscrupulous companies trying use this lack of awareness to scare people into accepting their services. One lady, who ran a jewellers' shop, had been told by a waste company that the Landfill Directive now meant that all waste had to be pre-treated before it is landfilled - the implication being only this company could provide a legal landfill service. Pre-treatment is indeed required, but the Environment Agency expects the waste management industry to deal with this requirement - not small businesses and retailers.
So there is a double imperative to understand environmental legislation - to make sure your business is neither hauled up in court by the Environment Agency nor ripped off by the sharks.
Labels: environment agency, landfill directive, legislation, SMEs, weee
# posted by Gareth Kane : 13:14
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A highly accessible, practical guide to those who want to introduce sustainability into their business or organization quickly and effectively.
