The Thursday Briefing is a blog by Tom Redford about green things, especially if they’re political, and even more so if they are to do with Europe. What I write isn’t necessarily representative of any Green Party, and this blog is published from the Netherlands and hosted in Denmark. Finally, I know my sentences are too long; get used to it, I like writing long sentences.
Constantly talking about the institutional aspects of the EU is getting boring, so it made me happy to see a nice, sort of green and European story in European Voice today. By 2021, there will be a requirement for new buildings to have “nearly zero emissions”.
Leaving aside the fact that this only covers new-builds, not existing structures; will be so woefully late in implementation that its impact will be somewhat limited; and doesn’t seem to offer a definition of “nearly”, its nice to hear of a bit of greenery getting close to being passed.
Oh all right, I’ll admit I’m just grasping at the smallest fragment of news to satisfy my self-imposed commitment to blog every day for the next fortnight.
I blame Russia. Poland has joined the ranks of European states planning to expand nuclear power (Bulgaria is planning to reopen closed stations, Sweden has just reversed a ban on nuclear, and Britain is committing to new stations in England). This is crazy for reasons that all environmentalists will know. They can’t be brought online in time to solve the energy gap from declining fossil fuels; they create insanely hazardous and difficult to store waste; Uranium is a finite resource; and they are far from being carbon neutral (how are they built, how is fuel transported to them &c.). The problem is, they’re a pre-existing technology, that is seen as “tried and tested”. Why’d anyone want to develop the mix of renewables and energy efficiency when you can just build nuclear?
The problem just now, and the reason I blamed Russia at the start of this post, is that at least two of the recent re-commitments to nuclear aren’t motivated by environmental concern, rather they are motivated by a well founded fear of energy security. In the UK, we might feel as if we’re suffering if energy bills go up as a result of instability in supplies. Try Bulgaria, where gas was cut, in midwinter, by the Russia-Ukraine dispute. Thousands of people simply didn’t have heating.
The temptation to run back to the gleaming nuclear future is just too easy to give into. And I’d venture a guess that more states will envisage that future, so long as Europe is reliant on gas, and thus Russia. In the long term, Azerbaijan can’t meet Europe’s gas demand, so while the Nabucco pipeline will diversify supply, we’re still getting our bulk of gas from Russia. The Nord Stream and South Stream pipelines still leave us beholden to Russia, not to mention the potential for widespread environmental damage from these projects, Nord Stream in particular.
In grasping at nuclear, Bulgaria and Poland have almost got the right answer to energy security, but they miss out environmental concerns completely. Yes, we need to have a more diverse energy supply to avoid reliance on one potentially hostile state, but the only solution which can be sustained in the long term is a renewables mix and reducing our demand.
After territorial games with underwater flags, and the opening of the once fabled North-West Passage, the EU is planning to make a first step into the issues surrounding the Arctic region. Commissioner Borg (Fisheries and Maritime) called for greater co-operation between Arctic states, to protect the polar environment, and deal with “the broader question of governance”. In a fairly diplomatic, and “we are the mature ones here” way, the Union seems to be trying to spin this move as having nothing to do with Russia’s moves to claim the North Pole, and the potentially vast natural resources lying around it under the sea-bed. I’m not entirely convinced this is the case.
The Guardian has joined a number of media outlets in covering Robin’s decision to step down from his co-convenorship in November, and from his parliamentary seat at the next Scottish general election in 2011.
Ireland
The Irish Green ministers are feeling greater pressure from the party’s membership, with concerns that they are too close to Fianna Fáil. Their coalition partner’s love of road building, coupled with stresses on the budget, mean that green measures are often being put to one side.
Czech Republic
A Green MP in the Czech Republic has become the target of attempted blackmail from a fellow MP. Olga Zubová was targeted by Jan Morava, in an attempt to force her to toe the official line of the government, of which the Greens are a part. The story was reported on Radio Praha with these almost boasting words: “We believe this is a first grade political scandal which comes close to some big scandals in Western Europe”. From what I can tell, this comes as there are wider splits within the party in the Czech Republic.
United States
General Motors has unveiled its new plug-in electric-hybrid car, the Chevy Volt. Exhibiting the same ‘plasticky’ interior that seems to be standard issue for US cars, it remains to be seen whether the Hummers new stable-mate will last, or whether a new “Who Killed The Electric Car” film will need to be made.
