Sir, Regarding ‘Chinese pledge raises hopes of climate compromise‘: The UN has already lowered expectations of COP 16 negotiations to rock bottom, and while only the most optimistic would expect a deal to emerge from Cancún, the fundamental imperatives underlying the urgency to adopt more sustainable economies have not gone away, nor can we afford [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Carbon capture and storage‘: I find the whole saga of the CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) issue entirely distasteful. The oil industry magnates and the coal industry giants must be laughing all the way to the bank and their shareholders must be agreeing with them that they can make a huge killing with [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘EU’s new transport strategy to put price on pollution‘: The most important external effect of (urban) traffic is congestion. In cities larger than about one million inhabitants, the cost of congestion far outweighs the combined costs of pollution, traffic accidents, noise and climate change. Transporting people one by one in a tonne of [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Bio-economy poses new competitiveness challenges for Europe‘: Innovation Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn has highlighted an area where the EU is missing out compared to other countries – particularly the USA. It need not do so, for it actually needs to address it through a different emphasis. Firstly, the EU should seriously consider removing the [...]

Sir, It is understandable that our elected representatives in the form of the Environment Council may wish to undertake more studies on moving to a 30% reduction in CO2 emissions. After all, this is a momentous step. PWR has some very good news in this regard, which will also delight BusinessEurope. Towards the end of [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Finland eyes world’s first ‘green highway’‘: It is indeed encouraging to read your news item on Finland’s ambition to create the first green highway in the world. However, Sweden and Norway are already almost there with a similar project, ‘Green Highway’, aka the E14, which stretches from the Atlantic to the Baltic, connecting [...]

Sir, As ministers from across the EU-27 meet for the Informal Energy Council on 6-7 September, the oil refining industry urges them to recognise refining as an essential element of energy infrastructure and ensure that the Communication on Energy infrastructure includes oil pipelines and refining as a vital part of the supply chain for refined [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘EU mulls beefing up energy savings policy‘: With the announcement that Danish MEP Bendt Bendtsen is to prepare recommendations for improving the EU’s energy savings policy, Europe’s half-hearted approach to reducing energy consumption could be about to change. Reducing energy consumption – as opposed to simply improving efficiency, which has historically rebounded in [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Brussels to play down ‘carbon leakage’ threat‘: We should call the bluff that industry is playing on carbon leakage. It would be more in our interests to encourage inefficient, energy-intensive, EU ETS-subsidised [European Emissions Trading Scheme] companies to exit Europe, because it could: 1) Reduce the EU’s carbon footprint rapidly and significantly. 2) [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Brussels pushes for electric cars‘: The European Commission (EC) released a communication on 28 April in response to a request from the Spanish Presidency to prepare a report on Clean Fuel Vehicles, focusing specifically on electric vehicles (EVs). Spain now produces as much as 30% of its electricity from renewable sources, including solar [...]