News – June 2012

Ban Ki Moon: Rio+20 was a success and leaves a concrete and lasting legacy

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has hit back at critics of the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development by claiming it was a ‘success’. The summit ended last week amid scenes of anger from Greenpeace, WWF and civil society groups, while 130 activists walked out of the talks in protest at what they said was a lack of action. But speaking in New York on Thursday Mr Ban praised civil society, and said Rio+20 …

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RTCC »

World’s first CCS leak experiment completed in sea off Scotland

The world’s first experiment to investigate the impact of a breached storage tank of carbon dioxide on the marine ecosystem has been completed off the coast of Scotland. More than four and a half tonnes of carbon dioxide were pumped into the seabed to simulate a gas leak, as part of a wider investigation into the safety of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.

The Guardian »

Welsh recycling rates hit 48%

Wales is surging ahead of the rest of the UK on recycling rates as it bids to become a “zero-waste” society, according to government figures published on Thursday. The average household in Wales recycled 48% of their waste during the financial year 2011-12, representing a 4% increase on the previous year. The announcement puts the country firmly on track to reach its 2012-13 statutory target of 52%.

The Guardian »

Good news: We have four environmental winners from Rio+20

It’s easy to think that the Rio+20 summit was a complete disaster – but that is simply not the case. While many have accused the document of being weak on deadlines and benchmarks – for many of the isolated and previously ignored ecosystems in the world, just being mentioned on the document offers an opportunity for governments to turn those words into actions.

RTCC »

Hard work is needed

“Difficult decisions” await as Scotland tries to meet its climate change goals, a group set up to help deliver targets has said. Members of the 2020 Climate Group spoke ahead of a Holyrood magazine conference about delivering the targets to cut carbon emissions by 42 per cent by 2020. Although they said significant progress had been made, they felt a lot of hard work was needed to meet targets. The Scottish Parliament is aiming for an 80 …

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Delivering on 2020 conference »