Posts by ESR
April 2020
– The new normal: A changed transport and land use future following Covid-19
– Stone: A new sustainable product?
– How Helsinki and Oslo cut pedestrian deaths to zero
– Greenland’s melting ice raised global sea levels by 2.2 mm in two months
– Tropical forests losing their ability to absorb carbon
– Electric cars produce less CO2 than petrol vehicles, study confirms
– Scientists create mutant enzyme that recycles plastic bottles in hours
Submission In Response To: Accelerating Renewable Energy And Energy Efficiency
Accelerating the use of renewable energy and improving energy efficiency are both very important steps that need to be taken, and we agree with many of the suggestions in the Discussion Document. However, given the extreme climate emergency we are currently now facing, with the strong possibility of catastrophic outcomes if it is not adequately addressed, these steps on their own are not nearly enough for New Zealand to contribute sufficiently towards holding global heating below the current internationally agreed limit of 1.5°C.
Read MoreSubmission In Response To: Reforming The New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme: Proposed Settings
It has now become very clear that we are facing an extreme crisis and potential catastrophe from global heating, primarily caused by emissions of CO2 from our burning of fossil fuels. Addressing this requires really urgent and effective action.
Read MoreSeptember 2019
-Ways to cool buildings down with less or even no AC
– BioFuels Update
– Plastic Recycling is a myth: what really happens to your rubbish
– Plastic back into oils, Australia and NZ
– Global renewable energy initiative aims to bring a billion people in from the dark
April 2019
– Stop trying to solve traffic and start building great places
– Accelerating Urgent Action in Urgent times
– More environmentally friendly architecture
– Concrete
– These wooden buildings are high rises
– Superadobe
– 20 Years since the Landmine Ban Treaty came into force
Submission In Response To: Process Heat In New Zealand: Opportunities And Barriers To Lowering Emissions Technical Paper January 2019
One of the aims of the 2015 Paris Agreement is: “Holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change.” New Zealand ratified this agreement and therefore needs to play its part in achieving the agreement’s aims.
Read MoreFebruary 2019
– Applying technology to stave off climate change
– The inconvenient truth about carbon capture
– The carbon-capture era may finally be starting
– UK carbon capture project begins
– Carbon capture facilities (source from company websites)
– New plant-focussed diet would ‘transform’ plant’s future, say scientists
– A third of Himalayan ice-cap doomed
– Environment in multiple crises – report
September 2018
– Recycling, Germany
– Hydrogen fuel cells
– Electric scooters and motorbikes, Taiwan
– Biofuels for transport; tracking progress
– Global energy goal progress
– California clean energy law
– CO2 level at Mauna Loa update
– Seal level rise accelerating
– Landmines and Cluster Weapons
Submission On The Zero Carbon Bill
The Zero Carbon Bill is a critically important piece of legislation for New Zealand. Even though the importance of controlling global warming has become increasingly clear and more widely understood over the past 30 years, to date we have not set meaningful targets to significantly reduce emissions and we have not had any mechanisms in place that seem to have had any significant effect on driving reductions in emissions. Hence our net emissions have just continued to increase through most of this period.
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