By Luke Wreford - One Planet Economy team - WWF – November, 2012
Recent analysis has shown the growing importance of low-carbon and environmental industries to the UK economy: they now contribute 8% to GDP and employ almost a million people – more than the motor trade and telecoms combined.
It’s true that green sectors are doing well while others are struggling – but to accelerate momentum and fully realise the economic and environmental benefits, the government needs to take some crucial decisions over the next couple of months.
By Dr Aled Jones - Global Sustainability Institute – April, 2012
Unlocking a green economy requires a transformation in everything we do. The urgency of the challenge we face gets greater and greater with every new piece of evidence. Avoiding so called ‘tipping points’ in the Earth’s climate system or going beyond a point of recovery for parts of the bio-system gets closer scrutiny every day – even though, as pointed out by Jay Leno (below), the problem has been bad enough for decades and we have yet to transform our societies in any way that meets the challenge.
Carsharing is a system of car rental where people hire cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. They appeal to customers who make only occasional use of a vehicle and who do not want the financial disadvantages of owning a car. Organizations which rent the cars may be commercial businesses or democratically-controlled companies or cooperatives.
The Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) is a new kind of energy-efficient transit system, in which cars are replaced by a network of automated (driverless), battery-powered vehicles. PRT systems are designed to combine the convenience and privacy of automobiles with the environmental benefits of mass transit. The vehicles, or ‘passenger pods’, each designed to carry from four to six people, move between interlinked stations.
Oregon has designed a Solar Highway, capable of producing 128,000 kWh of electricity per annum. The energy generated helps run the state’s transportation system by providing electricity for signals, illumination, buildings, ramp metering and more.
Honda Motor Company launched a zero emissions electric motorbike in 2010, aimed at the mass-market and domestic business customers. A lithium-ion battery gives the EV-neo performances equivalent to that of a 50cc petrol engine, and can be recharged from an ordinary household power outlet. The silent zero-emission two-wheeler accelerates to a speed of up to 30 kilometers per hour.
Colombia has built a novel public transportation system in Bogotá, the bus rapid transit or B.R.T, called TransMilenio, in an attempt to reduce congestion and combat climate change. It is used for about 1.6 million trips per day and has allowed the capital to remove 7,000 small private buses from its roads, reducing the use of bus fuel and associated emissions by more than 59% since it first opened in 2001.
The state of Hawaii and Hawaiian Electric are building an alternative transport system using electric vehicles with exchangeable batteries, along with a battery recharging network of thousands of stations connected by the internet, in efforts to cut carbon emissions and expensive fuel imports, at a cost of $1 billion.
Rwanda has produced a bus which runs on 100% biodiesel, the first in Africa, in collaboration with the Institute of Scientific and Technological Research (IRST). There are only two buses of this kind in the world and both were designed by the Swedish Scania Company. The other biodiesel bus is in Brazil.
