UK facing stringent renewables targets

This from the Financial Times (you need to register [free] to read the entire article) suggests that the EU targets that the UK will receive next week are going to be pretty tough to meet.

"officials in Brussels and Whitehall have told the Financial Times that Britain will have to increase its use of renewables as a share of all energy use from about 2 per cent to 13-14 per cent by the end of the next decade."

"Britain has the lowest renewables share of any major EU country: only Malta and Luxembourg have less."

Given that Tony Blair was warned that his agreement to the overall 20% target by 2020 was unachievable, this could get very interesting. "Mr Blair was warned by the former Department of Trade and Industry that the scheme was unachievable and costly, but he overruled ministers."

I wonder what the level of fines the UK is going to have to pay for failing to meet the targets will be?

Job's worth?

Last night I watched a show on the jobs and salaries in the UK: What Britain Earns (the only link I could find. Amazingly, or typically, the BBC site search didn't show any results, yet Google managed this... on their site)

An engaging, if not very thorough romp by Dad/son team Jon and Dan Snow.

I think I was surprised just how many folk (like our family) were struggling along on not very much). Equally, the number in the super-bracket seemed pretty low, though the amounts were obscene.

Speaking of which, I was simply appalled that in a very healthy upper mid-level was some lady who makes a very tidy living keeping rich plonker's cupboards in order. Tellingly, one of these clients is an MP, which must suggest something is awry.

It was also brought home to me by a couple of other coincidental things. First up I was trying to score a bit of additional income online with a job as a rep for a US music agency. In a charming rejection (getting any feedback at all being a near zero chance in the UK) they also advised that in Portland a salary of £10k was perfectly good to enjoy a life in a flat with car and enough for 'fun'. Meanwhile I just caught a programme on emigration to to Australasia where the salaries are near half here, yet the quality of life (houses, etc) pretty much the other direction.

Plus I just can't get out of my head how things seem to be misrepresented, or skewed, especially by the media, here.

On BBC Breakfast the bouffant and blonde were chatting about ageism with the usual vastly representative cross-section of the UK population, namely a reporter and a paper columnist, and all around the sofa seemed to think popping £5k away for a quick nip and tuck and Botox was the norm.

What planet are these folk on?

Climate change in the UK

It looks as if climate change is already having an impact on the UK according to a DEFRA report as reviewed by Guardian Unlimited today.

Central England temperatures are reported to have risen by 1C since the 1970's, while 2006 was the warmest recorded year since the first known records in 1659. Also, "sea surface temperatures around the UK coast have risen by about 0.7C over the past three decades."

And they reckon that a 'significant' portion of that warming is down to human activity; but just what does that mean? I just wish that formal reports would give us the real facts and figures, rather than a qualification. What exactly does significant mean? Does it mean 20% of it, or 80% of it?

Addendum/link (Junkk Male)

BBC - All nations 'need emission goals'
Gaurdian - Front-page thrillers
Guardian - Boris, Israel, 9/11 and me - an interesting insight into the possible motivations of the press. You only get paid if you get the numbers. And to get the numbers, you need to stir things up...

Could do better?

Despite recent improvements in the amount of waste that we recycle and compost here in the UK, and an actual reduction in what goes to landfill, we are still the dustbin of Europe.

The UK is still "throwing more waste into landfill than any other country in the EU."

It reminds me of the sort of comments you got in old school reports......... 'U.K. is making progress but needs to work harder to master the subject'.

BBC - You can never have enough dustbin headlines (Junkk Male addendum)

Perhaps we'll get relegated to the second division?

According to this from YahooNews, Britain comes pretty close to the bottom of the table when compared to other countries in terms of per capita CO2 emissions.

Our per capita emissions were more than double the worldwide average in 2004; worse still, even though many of us point the finger across the water at their apparent profligate use of energy, we even finish behind the United States!

Surely its time for someone in power to take the bull by the horns and do something to sort things out?

Tough with words. Tough on the causes of words. Or just 'tough'?

Miliband to make new emissions pledge

Don't you just love a good Pledge? One simply swipe and a manky bit of dead wood can be made to look and smell nice... for a wee while, until it wears off.

"David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, will try to restore Britain's place as world leader in the battle against climate change next week, with undertakings to cut the country's carbon output by the year 2020."

"He will promise..."

"That way, he hopes to get the UK back on track.."

Repeat after me, 'The Gloucester Old Spot now leaving Terminal 3, again....

"Tony Blair will fly to Brussels today..." Sorry. Not fair. Just... in context, it scanned amusingly.

"The initiative has been applauded by the former US vice president Al Gore, co-author of a film on climate change, and by Mr Miliband." And where, exactly, did that come from? Is Al 'flying in' too? What is this? The Axis of mutual backslappers?

Times - Britain puts climate change on UN agenda - Way-hay! It's on an agenda!