Eco Friendly Companies Directory - Supporting Ecological Solutions

• Al Gore calls for 100 percent renewable electricity by 2018
• Energy: Bill for Britain's nuclear clean-up increases by another £10bn
  A week after MPs criticise accounts, numbers go up
• How many MPs are climate change sceptics?
  A lively debate on The Guardian blog.
• Wave-powered boat makes it from Japan to Hawaii

More good news on the renewables front today: Al Gore has challenged the US to produce 100 per cent of its power from renewable sources in 10 years.

Gore has pitched his plan as the solution to not only climate change but also to high oil prices and energy insecurity - and as a way to keep the US economy healthy and to ensure national security.

A few of my favourite bits (the full text is here):

In my search for genuinely effective answers to the climate crisis, I have held a series of “solutions summits� with engineers, scientists, and CEOs. In those discussions, one thing has become abundantly clear: when you connect the dots, it turns out that the real solutions to the climate crisis are the very same measures needed to renew our economy and escape the trap of ever-rising energy prices. Moreover, they are also the very same solutions we need to guarantee our national security without having to go to war in the Persian Gulf...

Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years.

This goal is achievable, affordable and transformative. It represents a challenge to all Americans – in every walk of life: to our political leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers, and to every citizen...

A few years ago, it would not have been possible to issue such a challenge. But here’s what’s changed: the sharp cost reductions now beginning to take place in solar, wind, and geothermal power – coupled with the recent dramatic price increases for oil and coal – have radically changed the economics of energy....

To those who say the costs are still too high: I ask them to consider whether the costs of oil and coal will ever stop increasing if we keep relying on quickly depleting energy sources to feed a rapidly growing demand all around the world. When demand for oil and coal increases, their price goes up. When demand for solar cells increases, the price often comes down.

Of course the greatest obstacle to meeting the challenge of 100 percent renewable electricity in 10 years may be the deep dysfunction of our politics and our self-governing system as it exists today. In recent years, our politics has tended toward incremental proposals made up of small policies designed to avoid offending special interests, alternating with occasional baby steps in the right direction. Our democracy has become sclerotic at a time when these crises require boldness.

It is only a truly dysfunctional system that would buy into the perverse logic that the short-term answer to high gasoline prices is drilling for more oil ten years from now.

Am I the only one who finds it strange that our government so often adopts a so-called solution that has absolutely nothing to do with the problem it is supposed to address? When people rightly complain about higher gasoline prices, we propose to give more money to the oil companies and pretend that they’re going to bring gasoline prices down. It will do nothing of the sort, and everyone knows it. If we keep going back to the same policies that have never ever worked in the past and have served only to produce the highest gasoline prices in history alongside the greatest oil company profits in history, nobody should be surprised if we get the same result over and over again. But the Congress may be poised to move in that direction anyway because some of them are being stampeded by lobbyists for special interests that know how to make the system work for them instead of the American people.

If you want to know the truth about gasoline prices, here it is: the exploding demand for oil, especially in places like China, is overwhelming the rate of new discoveries by so much that oil prices are almost certain to continue upward over time no matter what the oil companies promise. And politicians cannot bring gasoline prices down in the short term.

So I ask you to join with me to call on every candidate, at every level, to accept this challenge – for America to be running on 100 percent zero-carbon electricity in 10 years. It's time for us to move beyond empty rhetoric. We need to act now.

Via The Sietch, EcoGeek, EnviroWonk, Grist etc.

Yesterday, the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) released their annual report and, as surely as night follows day, the news is that the bill for decommissioning and cleaning up our existing nuclear plants is rising. And rising. And rising.

In fact, we could have funded two London Olympics just from the rises in the estimated costs over the past two years.

Although no one really has a precise figure (and the NDA admits it can't tell us what the final bill will be), the estimate now stands at around £85bn - about the same amount as the Apollo Moon Landings cost.

There's more bad news for British Energy too. They announced yesterday that their reactors at Heysham and Hartlepool, currently off line because of faults, will now cost at least twice as much to repair – the bill will now be over £100m.

Their chairman said, with a straight face, that "output from our nuclear stations last year was disappointing." Somewhat unsurprisingly, this news appears to have dampened EdF’s appetite for buying BE.

Avedore CHP plant in Denmark

Remember how we said last month that industrial combined heat and power (CHP) plants could save us money, increase our energy security and help slow climate change?

Well, we've just heard that plans are afoot for just such a plant in Scotland. The Tullis Russell paper mill plans to reduce its annual carbon emissions by around 250,000 tonnes a year by switching to biomass CHP for its electricity and steam.

Up until now, the mill has been using coal to provide the steam and electricity it needs, but RWE npower has announced plans to build a 45 MW biomass plant on the site - 45MW being the equivalent of the electricity needed for around 50,000 homes.

(Last month, we commissioned research which showed that industrial CHP plants could generate about enough electricity to meet the annual needs of two thirds of UK households – about 14GW.)

Assuming the biomass for this new plant comes from sustainable sources, it's excellent news for the climate, and a pretty good metaphor for the energy revolution we need across the UK: a transition from fossil fuels to a decentralised energy system founded on CHP, renewables and efficiency.

What's more, the project has enjoyed robust support from the Scottish government. Not only is an £8.1m grant helping to fund the project, but Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond has been waxing lyrical about biomass CHP with an enthusiasm that Gordon Brown seems to reserve for nuclear power and coal:

"The new biomass plant in Markinch... pays testament to our competitive advantage in terms of skills and workforce and the development of energy supplies that are cleaner, greener and economically competitive," he said.

"This announcement points the way to the future and shows the resilience of the Scottish economy in the face of international financial pressure."

Here’s hoping Brown learns a thing (or two) from Salmond.

An excellent film from The Ecologist exposing the tactics used against environmental protestors - from espionage and legal threats to news manipulation and violence:

Via Plane Stupid.

• We're Investing So Much In Alternative Fuels, Sometimes We Almost Forget To Pump Oil

I don't know what's made Apple post the iPhone 3G's Environmental Status Report but it's definitely a step in the right direction. Maybe Apple Chief Steve Jobs read my blog and decided to act before our scientists got their hands and screwdrivers on his latest phone. While the new iPhone has less polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and Brominated Flame Retardants (BFR) than the original one, Apple has yet to eliminate these and other harmful substances like antimony, beryllium and phthalates.

Making phones without any PVC or BFR isn't a problem for Sony Ericsson and Nokia so why is Apple lagging behind? The iPhone in my opinion is a very stylish handset that scores high on usability and enjoys a cult following judging from the queues to buy it. It's a pity that it's not as green as the others when there's no reason why it couldn't be. Apple has promised to get rid of PVC and BFRs by the end of this year though. Let's see if they fulfil it.

• Wind power kicks ass, nuclear power not so much

What happens when a dirty energy utility pretends to care about climate change? Well, the Greenwash Guerillas declare open season on the toxic company and set about informing the public that they are being greenwashed. This morning, I joined them outside the E.ON sponsored Guardian Climate Change Summit at the Business Design Centre in London.

I donned my white jumpsuit, put a mask on my face and held a red banner asking E.ON to F.off. You see, E.ON wants to build a coal fired power station in Kingsnorth which will pump 24 countries worth of carbon into the atmosphere for the next 50 years. So, I think it's a bit rich for E.ON to sponsor a climate change event while building the first coal fired power station in 30 years. They're definitely not talking about E.ON's large share of carbon emissions so the Greenwash Guerrillas are there to fill the gap.

But we weren't just holding up banners and leaflets; each Greenwash Guerrilla was armed with a 'greenwash detector' made from hairdryers, vacuum cleaners and remote controls. But the Police didn't see the funny side until we broke into a hysterical dance to Britney Spear's 'Toxic' number. Not that they joined us in the dance but they pushed and shoved us a little less after that. The guerrillas were also overcome with the toxic levels of corporate Greenwash and 'died' but somehow were immediately resurrected.

We managed to get our message across to the summit delegates, many of whom accepted our leaflets and also to members of the public to whom we explained how corporates sponsor events such as this one to clean up their dirty image. The Camp for Climate Action will take place next month at Kingsnorth in Kent to oppose E.ON's plans to build the coal fired power station and the government's willingness to let them. Join us in putting an end to their plans and don't get greenwashed by their PR stunts like the one I witnessed today.

• 30 most incredible abstract satellite images of earth
• River use banned after French uranium leak
  Residents in the Vaucluse, a popular southern French tourist destination, were banned yesterday from drinking well-water or swimming or fishing in two rivers after a uranium leak from one of France's nuclear power plants.