2015 will prove to be an important year for the climate change debate with many areas of debate maintaining a high profile. Cheap oil will have all sorts of implications but this News focuses on investment – disinvestment and UK’s infrastructure investment programme with an analysis from the Green Alliance. Oh yes, and 2014 was […]
Defra ‘People in the highest flood risk areas will be better protected against spiralling insurance costs as Flood Re comes one step closer to implementation today. After ongoing negotiations with the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and Flood Re, an agreement has been reached on a number of matters regarding how Flood Re will operate. […]
This new report published in late December covers one of the most problematic issues in current marine development. NIRAS & MMO ‘NIRAS Consulting Ltd, supported by Amec Foster Wheeler, were commissioned by the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) to develop a framework for scoping potential cumulative effects at a strategic level, to be applicable across all […]
Sue Well’s article describes how marine protected areas are now part of main stream thinking across the world. Click here to open.World Parks Congress & MPAs Sue Wells article 17.1.15 Congress overview Over 6000 participants from more than 170 countries took part in the IUCN World Parks Congress (WPC) in November 2014 in Sydney, Australia. […]
This paper looks at the detailed relationship between trawling, fish and invertebrate populations in the Irish Sea ‘The effects of bottom trawling on benthic invertebrates include reductions of biomass, diversity and body size. These changes may negatively affect prey availability for demersal fishes, potentially leading to reduced food intake, body condition and yield of fishes […]
Steve Hull ‘The Productive Seas Evidence Group (PSEG – one of the four evidence groups reporting to the Marine Science Coordination Committee) has published a report http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/marine/science/MSCC/PSEG/socecenviron exploring current requirements and guidance on socio-economic assessment for marine development projects. It highlights that while UK marine policy increasingly demands that regulators integrate environmental, social and economic […]
Business Green ‘The first shots in what promises to be a brutish election campaign highlight how partisan politics could make the green economy one of the big losers of 2015. It is one of the most widely quoted and possibly apocryphal anecdotes in US political history. In one of his early Congressional campaigns Lyndon Johnson […]
A Scottish wildlife charity has lodged a legal challenge against the consent granted to four major offshore wind farm projects. RSPB Scotland is challenging the developments in the Firth of Forth and Firth of Tay. Scottish ministers approved the Inch Cape, Neart na Gaoithe and Seagreen Alpha and Bravo projects in October. Industry body Scottish […]