“In a letter to a newspaper yesterday the peers, including Labour lords Whitty and Puttnam, and both opposition spokesmen on energy and climate change Lords Taylor of Holbeach and Lord Teverson, said: “Relying sufficiently on emission reductions which take place overseas could influence long-term investment decisions here in the UK, particularly in the power sector, locking the country into high carbon economy for years to come, when the overwhelming need is to tackle climate change, develop clean technologies and benefit from the growth in green jobs.” The amendment says it will set a limit on carbon units it would be allowed to buy from abroad after “taking into account” the advice of the independent Committee on Climate Change.”

“The calculation showing the carbon emissions from Ghana and Kingsnorth are outlined below:
* According to the US Energy Information Administration, Ghana produced 6.7 million tonnes of CO2 from all activities in 2005, the latest year for which figures are available. http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/international/iealf/tableh1co2.xls
Greenpeace have estimated that the proposed Kingsnorth coal-fired power station would produce 8.1 million tonnes of CO2 a year. This was calculated in the following way:
* It is estimated that the proposed Kingsnorth plant will be working 88% of the time according to manufacturers and 92% of the time according to PB Power consultants. Taking the average of 90%, the proposed plant will generate electricity for 7884 hours a year.
* The power station will produce at 1.6 GW x 7884 hours = 12.6 TWh/y of output
* Based on an emissions factor for new supercritical coal plant of 646g CO2/kwh - the proposed Kingsnorth coal plant will produce 8.14 million tonnes of CO2 per year.
* The DTI white paper on energy states that the UK uses 350TWh a year of electricity, which means that the proposed new Kingsnorth power plant will supply 3.6 per cent of the UK’s electricity. “Meeting the energy challenge: A white paper on energy” (May 2007 pdf). http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file39387.pdf”

“Kárason is CEO and general manager of Papco, a tissue converter and manufacturer of industrial wipes, bathroom and kitchen cleaning products based in Reykjavik. He explained that Papco wanted to expand its business into tissue paper manufacturing. Taking advantage of Iceland’s enormous geothermal energy resources and its established position on global shipping routes, Papco would build a greenfield tissue mill adjacent to a geothermal power plant and close to a breakbulk and container harbor in Reykjavik. The plan was to import Brazilian virgin pulp and manufacture parent reels of bathroom tissue and kitchen towels for export (primarily to the UK, but also to North America).”

“The shocking admission that we are unable to identify the origin of nearly half the biofuels used in the U.K. means that the government cannot assure the British people that the biofuels in their petrol tanks have not destroyed rainforests,” said Asad Rehman, biofuels campaigner for Friends of the Earth-UK.”

“Britain is meeting its 2.5 percent target for biofuels use in motor fuel but is relying heavily on imports, government data issued on Friday showed. A Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) came into force on April 15. It requires suppliers of motor fuels to ensure a proportion, initially 2.5 percent, comes from renewable souces. A report issued by the Renewable Fuels Agency put biofuels use in the first two months of the programme at 2.53 percent. Britain produced only 10 percent of the biofuel, well behind the world’s two leading producers United States (27 percent) and Brazil (15 percent) while the origin of 32 percent of the fuel was classified as unknown.”