Simon

Today the Swedish parliamentary climate commission failed to set up tough emissions reduction goals to combat climate change. The Swedish climate commission was created to set up guidelines, emissions reduction goals and to create unanimity between all the major political parties in Sweden regarding climate change. Even though the opposition, as well as the currently ruling right-wing alliance government called for "tough" emission reduction targets the commission failed to create unanimity. Hans Jonsson, chairman of the climate commission, said during a press conference today that "we are in agreement on 300 pages worth of text. There is a half-page left on which we cannot find agreement. It has to do with Sweden's emissions targets for 2020." The right-wing government’s suggestion was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with 38% to 2020, compared to 1990 levels. They also accepted that 7-8% of emission reductions in other countries would be allowed. That means only 30% emission reductions would actually be made in Sweden. The opposition’s suggestion was 40% emission reductions and not allowing any (of those) reductions to be made outside of Sweden. While the climate commission failed to agree on emission reductions in the "short term" they succeeded to agree on goals for the medium and long term. The commission agreed that the emissions should be reduced with 75-90% by 2100 (compared to 1990 years levels). The commission also suggested a 50% increase in the Swedish railway capacity and use. According to the commission a per kilometre tax on heavy transport vehicles, higher emission standards on new cars and a 9 öre increase per kilogram in the carbon dioxide tax is also needed. They also urged the government to increase gas prices by 70 öre (about 11 cents), and increase it "in parallel with Sweden's overall economic development." Key to Swedish Political Parties: Government (right/centre-right): Moderates (Mod) Centre Party (Cen) Liberal Party (Lib) Christian Democrats (ChrDem) Opposition (left/centre-left): Social Democrats (SocDem) Green Party (Green) Left Party (Left)

According to a recent published report, by Benjamin Halpern and his colleagues at UCSB's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, over 40% of the world's oceans are heavily impacted by anthropogenic activities. Only a few, "if any", areas are unaffected. The report have taken four years to compile and resulted in 17 models of the earth. Each of the different models shows the damage caused by human activities such as pollution and fishing. The different models have then been merged into one showing the global effect (see image). Benjamin Halpern explains, on the UCSB website, the process he and his colleagues followed to make the composite map: "1. We gathered or created maps (with global coverage) of all types of human activities that directly or indirectly have an impact on the ecological communities in the ocean's ecosystems. In total, we used maps for 17 different activities in categories like fishing, climate change, and pollution. We also gathered maps for 14 distinct marine ecosystems and modeled the distribution of 6 others. 2. To estimate the ecological consequences of these activities, we created an approach to quantify the vulnerability of different marine ecosystems (e.g., mangroves, coral reefs, or seamounts) to each of these activities, published in Conservation Biology, October 2007. For example, fertilizer runoff has been shown to have a large effect on coral reefs but a much smaller one on kelp forests. 3. We then created the cumulative impact map by overlaying the 17 threat maps onto the ecosystems, and using the vulnerability scores to translate the threats into a metric of ecological impact. 4. Finally, using global estimates of the condition of marine ecosystems from previous studies, we were able to ground-truth their impact scores."

It's Valentine's Day! That means heart shaped figures and lots of chocolate. While I personally think it's a pretty pointless day (why would you need a special day to show your love for someone?), I know some who don't. And Jenny Cisney is one of them. Jenny Cisney, Information Designer at Kodak.com, has come up with a pretty neat idea to make something useful of those heart shaped candy boxes. When you polish off the last piece of chocolate from your Valentine's box of candy today... (What? You don't eat all yours right away?)... don't throw away the box! You can use it to make a Valentine's picture frame.

So you have switched your incandescent light bulbs to CFLs. Your food is organic, you buy locally produced products. And you have become a recycling master in your neighbourhood. Now what? Now is the time to get a green, organic and sustainable wardrobe! The Greenloop has everything you could ever need in fashion and accessories. They sell some really good looking reusable shopping bags, shirts, pants and shoes, and then some more. The online store has clothes and accessories from designers like Emily Katz, Grace & Cello, Deborah Lindquist and many more. You don't need to have any kinds of second thoughts when shopping on the Greenloop. They truly have a "green" spirit. Greenloop is, for example, a member of the 1% for the planet organisation, where companies donate 1% of their profits to environmental organisations. They are also approved "for people and planet" by Co-op America. Besides that there is one thing that's a bit more "green" about the Greenloop. They offer all their customers carbon neutral shipping. That means they purchase Green Tags (or RECs) for each order placed and thus "making each shopping experience even greener". Another great thing with Greenloop is that they offer PayPal as a payment solution. I like that as it offers secure and convenient transactions and payments (you don’t have to give out your credit card info). So check out the Greenloop and see if you find something you, or someone you know, would like to wear. Cause I already know where I am going to buy my next shirt.

Did you know that about 90% of the world’s goods are shipped the water way? About one billion ton of CO2 is emitted by ships, every year. The ships energy demands are expected to rise by 75% in about 15-20 years. Did you also know that 4% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions come from ships? This can be compared to the aviation industry that emits about 2%. According to a leaked UN study, the annual emissions from the world's merchant fleet have reached 1.12 billion tonnes of CO2. That is nearly 4.5% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Image credit: Angelrays. Image licensed under a Creative-Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works license.

Are you interested in how a sustainable city could look like? Just take a look at the EfficienCity! EfficienCity is a city built and governed by Greenpeace. The city shows, with text, images and video how a sustainable city it’s made, the flash application way. The site is packed with interesting information that explains and give examples on how a smart and "eco-friendly" city should look like. You can easily zoom in on the different buildings in the city and learn more about, for example, how bio-gas, wave, wind and solar is being used throughout the city. EfficienCity mainly targets UK citizens. But as you know the world is global and these things can be implemented in almost any city worldwide. Jamie, from Making Waves says that "if you believe our government, you'd think we need nuclear power and coal to stop climate change, but come and pay a visit to EfficienCity, which shows how pioneering, real world communities around the UK are using decentralised energy." And he proudly adds that as a result the city is "enjoying lower greenhouse gas emissions, a more secure energy supply, cheaper electricity and heating bills and a whole new attitude towards energy." The site is built by the design agency Biro Creative.

It's a brand new year for Europe, and for the European Union member states is has started with "tough" greenhouse gas emission targets being set. The new targets require that a certain amount of renewable energy will be installed in every member state. It's different amounts depending on the size and ability of each and every country. So how well are the different European countries doing? Well, that’s too early to say right now, but here is a list on the ten countries who have built the most wind plants in Europe last year: Spain - 3522 Germany - 1667 France - 888 Italy - 603 Portugal - 434 UK - 427 Sweden - 217 Netherlands - 210 Greece - 125 Poland - 123 And this is the total amount of wind plants they currently have: Germany - 22247 Spain - 15145 Italy - 2726 France - 2454 UK - 2389 Portugal - 2150 Netherlands - 1746 Greece - 877 Sweden - 788 Poland - 276 Please note that this last list do not show all European countries or member states. It only lists the top 10 wind plants builders in 2007. Image credit: Strollers. Image licensed under a Creative-Commons Attribution-Share Alike license.

We all know that politicians try to flatter everyone to vote for them. They promise and they promise but it’s not every time that their promises come to reality. Cause in the end they have usually promised too much than they can handle in their quest for power. For the right-wing opposition in Spain, this should have been crystal clear before they launched their climate saving plans. The Spanish political party, Partido Popular, have started their election campaign by promising to plant 500 million trees to combat climate change and stop the devastating effects it will have on Spain. The 500 million (!) trees are planned to be planted under a four years period, if Partido Popular gets elected. That’s ten times more trees than the ruling socialist party PSOE promised to plant when they got elected. While it is truly a notable campaign promise, for a political party that last year regarded climate changes as "something that will happen in 300 years", one must wonder how it will be possible. Planting over 14000 trees every hour, 24 hours per day in four years can be a bit, "complicated". Image credit: Extranoise. Image licensed under a Creative-Commons Attribution license.

The Swedish climate group Klimax (climax), known in Sweden for their campaigns against private motorism, aviation and the meat industry, have been putting up stickers with the text "Flying Kills" on advertisements from different aviation companies. The stickers are meant to resemble the stickers you can find on cigarette packages warning the buyer of the dangers the cigarettes will cause. With texts such as “Flying Kills” and “Flying will lead to climate chaos” the guerrilla campaign is a smart initiative that surely will make some people stop and think. Simon Retallack, from the UK Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), likes the idea of putting warning labels on adverts for flights, holidays and cars. We know that smokers notice health warnings on cigarettes, and we have to tackle our addiction to flying in the same way. But if we are to change people's behaviour, warnings must be accompanied by offering people alternatives to short-haul flights and by steps to make the cost of flying better reflect its impact on the environment. Simon Retallack wants higher air fares, including carbon offset charges. And any passenger unwilling to contribute should “be forced to actively opt out”.

A Greenpeace campaigner from Spain has reported that wind power have broken all previous records in Spain. A total of 13908 MW in wind capacity have been built in Spain. And because of good wind conditions wind energy in Spain reached 9563 MW of generated power. "Wind power met 25% of demand at that hour, well above coal (15%) and nuclear (16%). A new record may be expected today." As more investments is being re-directed from the fossil market to the renewable market and new technologies and improvements sprung up we will surely see more records and improvements in the efficiency of for example wind energy. Image credit: Cjohnson7. Image licensed under a Creative-Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works license.

Since Greenpeace left the Antarctic, due to low fuel, the Japanese whalers began their slaughter of whales. Australia who is strongly condemning the whale slaughter is still following the Japanese whalers. And yesterday they could release images and videos of the Japan whaling fleets slaughter of a whale mother and her calf (video after the jump). Peter Garrett, Australian environment minister, said that "it is explicitly clear from these images that this is indiscriminate killing of whales, where you have a whale and its calf killed in this way. And to claim that this is in any way scientific is to continue the charade that has surrounded this issue from day one." Mr Morimoto, japanese whalers ICR Director, said to the whalers defence that "it is necessary to conduct random sampling of the Antarctic minke population to obtain accurate statistical data." I wonder how "random" a "sampling" of 900 minke whales and 50 fin whales really is? Watch the video (Swedish voices): Related: - The Japanese people need to "re-examine the whaling issue" - Japan launches its largest whaling expedition ever

National Geographic have made a movie out of Mark Lynas latest and most terrifying book, ever. In the book, which is called "Six Degrees: our future on a hotter planet", Mark Lynas goes through each of the different degrees and explains how each of the degrees will affect our planet. The movie is called "Six Degrees Could Change the World". It is voiced by Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin and includes interviews with NASA’s Jim Hansen and IPCC Chair Rajendra Pachauri. The movie is premiering on National Geographic Channel in the US on February 10 at 8pm ET/9pm PT, and around the world on later dates. Here are the trailers for each of the six degrees:

Sir Mark Moody-Smith, former Shell chairman, wants the EU to ban inefficient and gas guzzling luxury cars. What’s so special about this is not that he is a former Shell chairman but that he defends his viewpoint in a most refreshing and social way: It is a social thing. We don't say the wealthy can avoid doing what is needed by society. When we eliminated coal fires in London we didn't say to people in Chelsea you can pay a bit more and toast your crumpets in front of an open fire - we said nobody, but nobody, could have an open fire. BBC has the whole story. Greenpeace UK have also covered the statement.