EU carbon price crisis leads to intervention

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europes-carbon-
trading-market/2013/05/05/d0729d0a-b5da-11e2-92f3-
f291801936b8_graphic.html

The EU has agreed to carbon market reform measures in an attempt to deal with the oversupply of carbon credits in the market that has resulted in a sustained collapse of the traded price for the EU emissions allowance (EUA). Introduction of the market stability reserve will be brought forward to 2019 in an attempt raise EUA prices which are currently trading at  just €7.66 per tonne CO₂e (May, 2015). Forecasts had suggested that this price would stagnate or at best rise to between €8.70-18.30 per tonne CO₂e by 2020, so the EU has been forced into action.  The new measures are predicted to triple the EUA price by 2020. 

In a recent interview Professor Nick Gray of Trinity College Dublin and author of Facing up to Global Warming welcomed the news but reiterated that ‘the price will still be well below that  required to stimulate either investment in renewable and alternative energies or mitigation measures.  The new measures will of course help to raise and even stabilize prices, but forecasts have generally been overly optimistic, so we could still end up with a very low carbon price by the end of the decade.  With the cost of carbon-capture predicted to level out at around €50-60 per tonne of CO₂e, we have to ask ourselves again just how much we should be paying for offsetting carbon emissions.’  

Post: Pete Ferris

It’s the 22nd April and it is Earth Day!

Why do we need Earth Day?

Because it works!  Earth Day broadens the base of support for environmental programs, rekindles public commitment and builds community activism around the world through a broad range of events and activities. Earth Day is the largest civic event in the world, celebrated simultaneously around the globe by people of all backgrounds, faiths and nationalities. More than a billion people participate in Earth Day events and campaigns every year. So you need to start celebrating as well!

We are celebrating Earth Day by releasing details of a new book:

Facing up to Global Warming

What is going on and how you can make a difference

The book written by Professor Nick Gray, Director of the Trinity Centre for the Environment at Trinity College Dublin, is based on his course  Living Sustainably: A guide to surviving a changing planet.  The book is to be published by Springer and is due out in the summer.

To find out more about the book look at its website http://www.ournewclimate.com

To read more about the Earth Day movement and its history use the link:  http://www.earthday.org/earth-day-history-movement

Spiritual Dimensions of Sustainable Development – Project

Here is a very interesting and useful comment about Lecture/Chapter 2 of the new textbook  Facing up to Global Warming and thanks to Paul O'Gorman for sharing it:

"I like this fourth element in the economy-ecology-social nexus, which I found in “Spiritual Dimensions of Sustainable Development – Project” on the Earth Charter site. The inspiration for this project crystallized at the Earth Charter +10 Conference in Ahmedabad, India, which called for deepening the general understanding of sustainable development that considers sustainability based on distinct but interrelated ecological, social and economic dimensions. The former Dutch prime minister Ruud Lubbers stated: "We may even begin to speak about four ‘P's: People, Planet, Profit and ‘Pneuma' " Earth Charter International Council Co-Chair Steven C. Rockefeller commented: "There is a fourth pillar - the global ethical and spiritual consciousness that is awakening in civil society around the world and that finds expression in the Earth Charter. This global ethical consciousness is in truth the first pillar of a sustainable way of life, because it involves the internalization of the values of sustainable human development and provides the inspiration and motivation to act as well as essential guidance regarding the path to genuine sustainability."

Find out more at: http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/invent/details.php?id=898

To learn all about the Earth Charter access their information pack here.

@nickgraytcd

A Pint of Nature for St Patrick's Day

This St Patrick's Day, make yours a pint of nature. 

The Irish Forum on Natural Capital (IFNC) has created this infographic to illustrate just how important natural processes are in making a pint of beer, but the same logic applies to every commodity in our lives: from staples like bread and milk to luxuries like lipstick and laptops, nature is at the root of everything. 

So let's make it count!

Check out their website and find out what the IFNC are all about:

http://www.naturalcapitalireland.com/

Happy St Patrick's Day!

#Nickgraytcd

International Women's Day

International Women's Day

http://www.internationalwomensday.com/

World Soil Day - December 5

Land as a Finite Resource

Land is now considered to be a finite resource under significant threat from farming, industry and development.  The basis of land is of course soil which provides us with our food, fodder for livestock, fuel, fibre, building materials, and much more.  It is key to all ecosystem services and to human wellbeing.  Soil also harbours a significant portion of global biodiversity and is a key component in the carbon cycle and the storage and sequestration of carbon dioxide. World soil day has been celebrated each year since 2002 to raise awareness and to support action to protect and enhance soil quality.  The FAO are now the key organizers of events all around the world to celebrate World Soil Day.

Here is a message from FAO Land & Water Division Director, Moujahed Achouri

For more information: http://www.fao.org/globalsoilpartnership/world-soil-day/en/

For more information about FAO World Soil Day contact Professor Nick Gray (nfgray@tcd.ie)

Strange Weather Exhibition at the Dublin Science Gallery

The latest exhibition at the Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin is STRANGE WEATHER.

The exhibition runs from the 18^th July until the 5^th September and  is curated by Catherine Kramer and Zack Denfeld of CoClimate; Lynn Scarff, Director of the Science gallery and Gerald Fleming, Head of Forecasting at Met Éireann.  Like all these wonderful exhibitions at the Gallery it is most informative and very much hands on. So you can have a try at forecasting the weather yourself, create your own micro-climates and learn just how predictable the future of weather is.

Nick Gray