A summary of today’s top climate and clean energy stories.
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Ed Miliband speaking at the Labour conference. (Pic: Ed Miliband)
UK: Leader of the opposition Ed Miliband promised a million green jobs would be created through decarbonising the UK’s power sector by 2030 and announced plans to freeze electricity bills to 2017 in a rousing speech at the Labour party conference yesterday. (Business Green)
New York: On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, chairperson of the Hinduja Foundation US, Shanu S P Hinduja, called for a ‘Global Challenges Day’ to take stock of government efforts to combat and provide solutions to the challenges of terrorism, climate change and poverty, in association with the UN. The meeting brought together several heads of state and foreign ministers from 130 nations, including US Secretary of State John Kerry. (Economic Times)
Europe: Ministers attending the EU Competitiveness Council will listen to Markus Beyrer, director of lobby group BusinessEurope to tell them that action to prevent global warming must not hinder economic recovery. Beyrer is expected to say the EU should only use the Emissions Trading System to cut greenhouse gas emissions. (EurActiv)
US: Environmentalists in the US have written to President Barack Obama urging the White House not to make any deals with Canada that would green-light TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline. They argue that Keystone cannot exist alongside efforts to contain climate change. (Star Phoenix)
Research: Analysing and mitigating the effects of climate change have become pressing issues for risk managers, according to Gaëtan Lefèvre, chairman of the Belgian risk management association BELRIM. Lefèvre is the moderator of a workshop on climate change at the Risk Management Forum of the Federation of European Risk Management Associations (FERMA), which will begin on 29 September in Maastricht. (Continuity Central)
US: The Davis Institute for Transportation Studies at the University of California was chosen this week in a national competition by the US Department of Transportation to lead an $11 million federal study that will look into ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by the everyday movement of Americans to work, school and elsewhere. (Modest Bee)
New York: Speaking at the opening of the UN General Assembly yesterday, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon – called upon leaders to come together in a Climate Summit one year from now to stimulate action on creating a legally binding deal in 2015. (RTCC)
UK: Climate change-focused religious group Operation Noah has launched a new campaign this week called Bright Now: towards fossil free Churches , which calls on religious institutions to divest their polluting energy assets and become leaders in sustainable investment in clean energy technologies. (Blue & Green)
Research: Land degradation around the world is likely to accelerate unless governments place a value on soil, water, trees and ecosystems according to a new report released today in Windhoek, Namibia on the sidelines of a UN summit focused on desertification. (RTCC)
India: Utilities in India are planning to construct the world’s largest solar power plant at 4GW in Rajasthan which is expected to commission its first phase in 2016, providing 1GW of electricity, enough to make it India’s largest solar power project ten times over. The other 3GW would be produced in an arrangement determined by the success of the first phase. (Climate Progress)