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Green campaigners will be relieved that the three main environmental quangos, Natural England, the Environment Agency and the Forestry Commission, have at least survived the cull; there had been fears since the election that the first two would be merged and the last abolished.

However, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) says the three will be transformed in a “radical and comprehensive” way, which may be one way of saying that their budget cuts next week will be so enormous that they will have to undergo major restructuring just to function.

Another hint of what may be coming lurks in the ominous phrases that they will “stop activity that Government does not need to do”, which may mean handing over the network of national nature reserves in England to wildlife charities.

They are also to “stop policy-making and lobbying activities”. This announcement closes the door on any environmental, non-departmental, public body telling the Government in future that it is going about things in the wrong way – at least publicly.

Another major green quango, British Waterways, which looks after the 2,200-mile network of canals, is ceasing to be a quango and will re-invent itself as a charity.

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Amateur filmmakers from around the globe are encouraged to participate in the “1 minute to save the world” competition which closes in two months. The winning entry will be screened at COP16 in Mexico.

The international film competition is open to all ages and is free to enter; budding filmmakers must submit a short film (roughly one minute in length) about climate change. The films will be judged by professionals in the film and environmental industries, including Ben Kott of Google Europe Environmental Operations. The deadline for entries is December 17; entries from filmmakers under 18 in the Best Youth Film category must be submitted by November 12.

As well as winning a variety of electronic and cash prizes, the winning movie in the Best Youth Film category will be screened in front of world leaders at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change COP16 in Cancun, Mexico, which runs November 29 – December 10 (http://www.cc2010.mx/en/).

Last year’s winning entry was titled My Paper Boat and was made by Arun Bose from India; the short film depicts a young boy searching an arid desert for somewhere to play with his paper boat.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has also launched its second video competition to promote awareness of climate change. This year’s competition is called My View H20 and requires entrants to make a short film about water; the competition is open to all of ADB’s 67 member countries and closes to entrants on January 31, 2011.

For more details about how to enter 1 minute to save the world see: http://www.1minutetosavetheworld.com/awards/

Watch last year’s 1 minute to save the world winning entry at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gasMl5DdhkA

For more information about My View H2O see: http://www.adb.org/MyView/2010/

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Homes and businesses in the north-east and Yorkshire are to benefit from the largest smart grid project ever to take place in the UK.

Some 14,000 homes are due to take part in the £54 million project, which will aim to assess the impact of electric cars, solar panels and other low carbon technologies on the electricity grid. 

All homes taking part in the study will install smart meters, while 1,500 will use air or ground source heat pumps, 800 will install solar PV panels and 150 will drive electric cars.

The findings will then be applied to the whole of the UK using data from 160,000 smart meters. Solutions will then be trialled to see how the capabilities of the grid can be improved.

Durham, Leeds, Newcastle and Sheffield are among the major cities participating in the project, which is being supported by CE Electric, British Gas, Durham Energy Institute and EA Technology.

Phil Bentley, managing director of British Gas, said: “It is vital that Britain makes the transition to a low carbon economy – and no single company has all the answers.”

Figures released from Ofgem recently, in relation to the Feed-in Tariffs, revealed that solar panels account for 97 percent of installations under the scheme

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The opportunity to create thousands of green jobs could be missed if the government cuts investment in the low carbon economy, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has claimed.

In a letter to Chancellor George Osborne, the TUC, Friends of the Earth and the Aldersgate Group warned that the market cannot be relied on to “drive the move to a low carbon economy”.

A reduction in government investment would also be a “huge blow” to the development of carbon capture and storage technologies, the document added.

Speaking at the TUC Alliances for Green Growth Conference, deputy general secretary Frances O’Grady said that green investment is “essential” to ensure the economic recovery of the UK.

“Cutting green funding in the spending review would not just risk economic recovery, it would also mean many lost opportunities to create green jobs, develop technologies that could reduce our carbon emissions, and save businesses and taxpayers billions of pounds,” she said.

Ms Grady also reiterated the needed for the Green Investment Bank to provide capital for green initiatives.

Mr Osborne will be announcing the comprehensive spending review, which lays out the government’s spending plans for the next four years, on Wednesday October 20th.

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Economic factors rather than environmental concerns are influencing consumers’ attitudes to energy efficiency, new research suggests.

The latest Attitude Tracker from The Energy Saving Trust, released this week, found that two-thirds of people are more inclined to try and save energy now that economic times are tough.

Some 53 percent of those questioned agreed with the statement “I’m more interested in the money I would save from using less energy than in the effect it would have on climate change”.

More than three-quarters of people said that energy saving is now “becoming the expected way of thinking”.

Matt Hunt, spokesperson for renewable energy advice firm BritishEco.com, said that the firm is currently quite busy with requests from homeowners.

“There is still a desire from people to make their houses environmentally sound, especially if they are rewarded with fixed tariffs and things,” he explained.

However, the Attitude Tracker survey found a five percentage point drop in the number of people who claimed to be more interested in energy saving than they were a year ago, from 66 percent in 2009 to 61 percent this year.

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Crop failure could become a more common occurrence as climate change begins to take effect, new research shows.

A team made up of experts from the University of Leeds, the Met Office Hadley Centre and University of Exeter conducted the study, which concluded that the extreme weather events caused by climate change will lead to increasing numbers of crop failures.

Forest fires in Russia caused by heat and drought over the summer led to an area of crops larger than the size of Hungary being unusable.

Using spring wheat crops in northern China as the basis for the study, the researchers used a climate model to predict the weather patterns and assess how this would affect yields. Socio-economic factors related to the farmers were also taken into account.

Lead author Dr Andy Challinor, from the University of Leeds School of Earth and Environment, said that solutions must be found to the problem.

“It is highly unlikely that we will find a single intervention that is a ’silver bullet’ for protecting crops from failure. What we need is an approach that combines building up crop tolerance to heath and water stress with socio-economic interventions,” he added.

The study appears in Environmental Research Letters.

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Britons are less environmentally conscious than they were five years ago, with twice as many people now “bored” by talk of climate change as in 2005. Four in 10 take no action at all to reduce their household carbon dioxide emissions. Experts warn that green fatigue is a major reason why there are more cars on the roads, more planes in the sky and no reduction in the mountain of packaging waste.

As a new energy report reveals that too few people are making an effort to reduce their household CO2 emissions, environmentalists believe the recession is further undermining public commitment.

The report, by market researchers Mintel, shows that many of Britain’s 26 million homes fail to make simple adjustments such as turning down thermostats, switching off lights and switching off appliances rather than leaving them on standby. The findings also reveal people are less willing to spend money on energy-efficient appliances than they were five years ago. Analysts believe the recession together with a backlash against “extreme” environmentalist pressure has reduced people’s enthusiasm to combat climate change.

The report also found that resistance to saving the planet was greater among men: one in four said they think there is too much concern over the environment, compared with one in six women.

Other evidence of waning public interest in consumers’ carbon footprint includes a rise in air and car travel. The number of cars on UK roads has risen from just over 26 million in 2005 to more than 31 million in 2009. Air travel has also increased, the number of passengers rising from 227 million in 2005 to 235 million in 2008.

New research from the Energy Saving Trust found that climate change has taken a back seat to recession concerns. The authors of the Mintel, blaming the problem partly on consumer ignorance, recommend the Government “help consumers to help themselves” by providing them with more information about energy savings in accessible ways.

Environmentalists are still positive about the progress on green issues. “It comes in waves,” said Craig Bennett of Friends of the Earth. “Some things people have been doing for a while – [such as] buying organic tea. For people to take the next step – insulating their homes or other big projects – requires more support.”

A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the country was moving towards a more sustainable future. Household recycling rates had increased from 14 per cent to 37 per cent from 2001 to 2009, and the proportion of waste sent to landfill dropped from 78 per cent to 50 per cent over the same period.

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Shoppers familiar with seeing fair trade, organic or rainforest labels during their weekly shop will have to get used to anotherlogo: the carbon footprint.

Leading food brands are increasingly using the Government’s black footprint logo and, according to research published today, it will become the second most common ethical label in UK shops by the end of this year.

The Centre for Retail Research forecasts that annual sales of the Carbon Reduction Label run by the publicly funded Carbon Trust would hit £2bn by the end of 2010, putting it behind only the Red Tractor farm assurance scheme (£10bn), but ahead of the Soil Association’s organic mark (£1.5bn); Fairtade (£800m); RSPCA Freedom Foods (£800m), and the smaller Rainforest Alliance and Marine Stewardship Council schemes.

For shoppers, the black footprint logo shows that producers are working behind the scenes with the Carbon Trust to identify and reduce carbon emissions that cause global warming.

In some cases, the labels also display the amount of CO2 generated by each product, giving consumers a greater insight into how much unseen pollution is caused by their purchases – sometimes with surprising results. The amount of CO2 emitted generally weighs more than the product, and there can be substantial variations between different brands or types of the same product.

Tesco has been the most enthusiastic supporter of the scheme, carrying out a commitment made three years ago to carbon label all of its 70,000 food lines. It has so far put footprints on 100 own-brand products, including semi-skimmed milk (800 grams per pint); orange juice (1.1kg per litre); and toilet roll (1.1 grams per sheet).

Walkers, the UK’s best-selling crisps, and baker Kingsmill, which is owned by Primark’s parent company Associated British Foods, have adopted the idea too. Shoppers can already see that at 1.3kg of CO2 per 800 grams, a loaf of wholemeal bread generates 15 times more carbon dioxide than a small packet of crisps (80 grams).

However, other products have not been included, possibly because shoppers would be put off by how much pollution they generate. Meat has “astronomical” emissions according to one supermarket source, something borne out by research. A study by Japan’s National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science found three years ago that 1kg of beef released the equivalent of 36kg of CO2.

Alcohol, too, has high emissions. While a 330ml can of Coca-Cola has 170 grams, Adnams eco-bitter East Green has 432 grams per half-litre. Consumers can, however, slash the impact of their purchases by using the same products differently – washing clothes at 30C rather than 40C saves 160 grams of CO2.

Currently, these insights are interesting, but they could become more important. Two years ago the Commons Environmental Audit committee said the Government should give everyone a personal carbon allowance.

Euan Murray, the Carbon Trust’s head of footprinting, said he did not know if all products would eventually be carbon labelled, but added: “We are increasingly seeing people recognise that things have a carbon footprint, and they want to do something about it.”

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Panasonic Corp. is looking to promote the green revolution in the home and wider community with a display of cutting-edge gadgets and energy-saving devices for future generations at the upcoming CEATEC Japan 2010 exhibition.

The electronics giant is just one of around 600 companies that will be exhibiting at the annual technology show, the largest of its kind in Asia, and which organizers are hoping 200,000 people will attend this year. CEATEC stands for Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies and the title of the event this year is “Digital Harmony: Technologies for Comfortable and Eco Living.”

Tying in neatly with that theme is Panasonic’s offering, which is described as “various solutions involving the entire town for realizing a sustainable green lifestyle which is safe, comfortable and enjoyable.”

The Energy Solution Zone, for example, will highlight the company’s Home Energy Management System, which is designed to control the energy that is created, stored and saved in the home to achieve optimum energy efficiency that is in tandem with the homeowner’s lifestyle.

The same zone will include intelligent Networkable Eco Navi Home Appliances that will elevate these everyday appliances to a whole new level as they are linked to other electronics.

There will also be solutions for environment-friendly cars, again linked to Panasonic’s plans for the whole house, as well as “Energy Solutions for the Entire Town,” which integrate the home with other buildings, shops and offices in a community through a common energy management system.

In the Network Audio-Visual Zone, the company will show off multifaceted three-dimensional presentations, including a 3D mass display that consists of 33 3D plasma screens ranging from 42 to 152 inches. The world’s first consumer 3D camcorder and 3D-compatible Lumix G Micro System cameras with the world’s first interchangeable 3D lens will allow consumers to create their own 3D content.

For professionals, Panasonic’s 3D professional camcorders, 3D editing equipment and 3D imaging technology will also be on display.

CEATEC Japan 2010 gets under way on October 5 at the Makuhari Messe International Convention Complex, just outside Tokyo. Other electronics firms that will be exhibiting at the event include Fujitsu Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric, Toshiba, Murata Manufacturing and Nissan Motor Corp.

CEATEC, October 5- 9

Times: 10 am to 5 pm

Venue: Makuhari Messe International Convention Complex, 2-1 Mikase, Mihama-Ku, Chiba City, 261-0023, Japan. http://www.m-messe.co.jp/en/index.html

Admission: All visitors are required to register, either in advance or on the door. Registering via the www.ceatec.com/ website provides free entry. On the door, the cost is Y1,000 (€9.29) for an adult and Y500 (€4.65) for a student. Children under the age of 12 are admitted free.

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A competition has been launched to find new solutions to the maintenance challenges presented by wind turbines built hundreds of kilometres offshore.

Backed by the Carbon Trust, the project is looking for new ways of safely transporting engineers to turbines located up to 300km off the coast in extremely difficult conditions.

The trust claims that this could boost revenues by up to £3 billion by increasing the amount of time turbines can generate energy for by four percent.

Typically, offshore conditions mean that turbines can generate power 90 percent of the time.

However, the tough environment present further out at sea, where conditions are in theory better for wind energy generation, could mean that turbines are only able to transfer power for 160 days of the year.

Charles Hendry, minister of state for energy, said: “As developers seek to get wind turbines into deeper waters, where the wind blows more wildly and the waves are stronger, it is vital that access and safety are maximised and costs minimised.”

Successful applicants to the competition will be granted funding of up to £100,000 per concept.

The world’s largest offshore windfarm – Thanet – was recently opened off the south coast of the UK by Vattenfall.

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