25
September 2008 - International — In a long-awaited
display of responsibility, the European
Parliament’s Environment committee has voted
through a strong package to reduce emissions
from cars. As the committee went into session,
it seemed certain that a compromise package
riddled with loopholes would be the one
to pass. However, the MEPs voted to stick
with meaningful legislation, turning their
backs on nine months of lobbying by the
car industry.
Under the new deal,
average fleet emissions from new cars, which
are currently around 158 grams
• Must be reduced to 130 grams/km by 2012
• Must fall further to 95 grams by 2020
• For every gram over the average a manufacturer
will face fines of 95 euro per car
The proposal still has
to pass the full EU Parliament and the Council
of Ministers. But this is now increasingly
likely to happen, and we’ll be defending
this package every inch of the way.
The ruling comes as a huge blow to the car
industry lobby, which has shamelessly defended
its right to drive climate change by putting
profits ahead of the climate. The lobby,
led by Volkswagen, Mercedes and BMW will
now have to embrace a low carbon future.
+ More
Victory! Turkish nuclear
plans powered down
25 September 2008 -
Turkey — Just two days after the arrest
of 37 activists from Greenpeace and Global
Action Group protesting against nuclear
energy in Turkey, there has been a victory.
For months, the Energy Ministry of Turkey
has been intent on selecting a supplier
for its first nuclear energy plant. The
plant would have been the first of a number
the Turkish government says it wants to
build. Instead, plans have been stopped
dead in their tracks. It turns out energy
companies just aren’t that interested in
the risk of a new nuclear energy plant.
Yesterday, the government
received envelopes from 6 companies supposedly
interested in building the new plant. Only
one envelope actually held a bid for a new
nuclear plant – the other five contained
a “thanks but no thanks” letter. Russian
company Atomstroyexport was the only one
willing to roll the dice on nuclear energy
in Turkey. But, Turkish rules say that without
competition for the bid the government is
unable to move ahead and issue the tender
for a new nuclear plant.
Turkey might have been
considering nuclear energy as a quick and
cheap fix to its energy needs but nuclear
energy is anything but quick or cheap. In
addition to being extremely dangerous and
dirty, nuclear energy is an economic disaster.
Because of increasing costs and construction
time, companies just don’t want to invest.
The time has come for
an Energy [R]evolution. Let’s not fall back
on power from the past. We’ve come up with
a plan to move from a world powered by nuclear
and fossil fuels to one running on renewable
energy.
