Today’s look at the world through green-coloured glasses.
ACT aims to beat Garnaut. Federal Government climate change adviser Ross Garnaut has recommended that Australia offer to cut emissions by 25 per cent by 2020, reports the ABC. Now the ACT government has announced a plan to beat this target. More details to follow.
Financial crisis not an excuse. Speaking at a Warsaw conference, Yvo de Boer, who oversees the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), had some strong words about the credit crunch eating into environmental efforts. Basically, it must not happen. He said: “To use the financial crisis as an excuse not to act on climate change would basically amount to setting yourself up for the next financial crisis.”
US population turns off the lights; utility companies concerned. An unexpected drop in U.S. electricity consumption “has utility companies worried that the trend isn’t a byproduct of the economic downturn, and could reflect a permanent shift in consumption that will require sweeping change in their industry, “ says The WSJ. While it’s yet to be seen whether the change is a blip or something more substantial, consumers seem to be changing their habits.
Coke’s environmental pledge: “water neutrality”. The term “water neutrality” itself is ultimately misleasing, says Tree Hugger, but Coke’s aim to “return to communities and to nature an amount of water equivalent to what we use in all of our beverages and their production” is impressive.
