Brown to lobby EU on greener VAT

Gordon Brown has said he will push for lower taxes on environmentally friendly products across the European Union.
Mr Brown said the UK and France would seek to persuade other nations of the need for an EU-wide cut on VAT levied on less polluting goods.

The British Prime Minister made the pledge during his first meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The European Commission welcomed the initiative but said it would require agreement from all 27 member states.

'New incentives'

Speaking in Paris, Mr Brown said market mechanisms were needed to encourage consumers to buy greener products such as low-energy fridges and insulation materials.

"It is now time that we give new incentives to people who are wanting to buy environmentally friendly products," Mr Brown said.

"The plans would involve reducing rates of VAT on energy-efficient products and energy-saving materials as an incentive for consumers to make more sustainable decisions."

Mr Sarkozy added that it was "unfair that a polluting car costs less than a car that does not pollute".

Any changes to EU-wide tax laws would require the approval of all 27 members, something that is likely to be far from straightforward.

The scope of goods which could enjoy tax benefits could become a major sticking point.

The BBC's Alex Ritson in Brussels said the plans may also meet with opposition from countries worried about the prospect of reduced tax revenues.

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China simplifies method for turning coal to gas

Chinese researchers have demonstrated a cheap, simple way to convert underground coal into gas. The new method could make it more economical to exploit coal seams that are otherwise difficult to reach, but also raises environmental concerns.

Coal gas was commonly used in the 19th century to light cities, and is still manufactured today in some plants above ground. Coal is heated in the presence of oxygen and steam, producing methane, hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.

The process would be cheaper, however, if the coal did not have to be mined and transported first.
"The Chinese been working on this process, and they're quite keen on it, for 20 years now," says Michael Green, Director of UCG Engineering in the UK, which consults on underground coal gasification. "They're trying to [create] a very cheap process, without high technology."

But Green says more efficient methods are also being developed in the West that use directional drilling to create combustion chambers, and which feed fires with pure oxygen instead of air.

However, environmentalists worry that coal gasification will release too much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, accelerating climate change.

Green says that underground coal gasification could be combined with carbon sequestration. But he notes that the Chinese experiment was conducted on a relatively shallow coal seam, which could also risk contaminating groundwater. Proposed Western projects would occur much deeper, he says.
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Summer sun can provide winter heat

RELYING on solar heating might sound like a bad idea if you live in a country that sees little daylight for much of the winter. Yet that's exactly what 50 households in Anneburg, Sweden, have been doing for the past two years.

During the summer, water is pumped through rooftop solar heaters to warm it, before being stored in pipes embedded in granite 65 metres below ground. The water is kept hot by the rock, and can then be pumped back up to heat homes in winter.

So far the system has reduced reliance on conventional heating by nearly 25 per cent. This could rise to 70 per cent over the next few years as the storage rocks get hotter, according to an evaluation by a team at Uppsala University. "During the winter season there isn't that much sun, but we can still use solar," says team member Magdalena Lundh.
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A sunshade for the planet

EVEN with the best will in the world, reducing our carbon emissions is not going to prevent global warming. It has become clear that even if we take the most drastic measures to curb emissions, the uncertainties in our climate models still leave open the possibility of extreme warming and rises in sea level. At the same time, resistance by governments and special interest groups makes it quite possible that the actions advocated by climate scientists might not be implemented soon enough.

Fortunately, if the worst comes to the worst, scientists still have a few tricks up their sleeves. For the most part they have strongly resisted discussing these options for fear of inviting a sense of complacency that might thwart efforts to tackle the root of the problem. Until now, that is.

A growing number of researchers are taking a fresh look at large-scale "geoengineering" projects that might be used to counteract global warming. "I use the analogy of methadone," says Stephen Schneider, a climate researcher at Stanford University in California who was among the first to draw attention to global warming. "If you have a heroin addict, the correct treatment is hospitalisation, therapy and a long rehab. But if they absolutely refuse, methadone is better than heroin."

Basically the idea is to apply "sunscreen" to the whole planet. It's controversial, but recent studies suggest there are ways to deflect just enough of the sunlight reaching the Earth's surface to counteract the warming produced by the greenhouse effect. Global climate models show that blocking just 1.8 per cent of the incident energy in the sun's rays would cancel out the warming effects produced by a doubling of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. That could be crucial, because even the most stringent emissions-control measures being proposed would leave us with a doubling of carbon dioxide by the end of this century, and that would last for at least a century more.
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