September 2011

Einem Dokument des Wissenschaftlichen Beirats der Europäischen Umweltagentur (EEA) zufolge sind die Emissionseinsparungen durch Biokraftstoffe falsch berechnet worden.

Demnach weisen fast alle europäischen Rechnungssysteme massive Fehler auf. „Die meisten Bioenergieträger haben erheblich größere Treibhausgasemissionen, als ihnen aufgrund der gegenwärtigen Berechnungssysteme zugerechnet werden“, sagte Helmut Haberl, Mitglied des Beirats und Professor am Institut für Soziale Ökologie in Wien.

The European Union is overestimating the reductions in greenhouse gas emissions achieved through reliance on biofuels as a result of a “serious accounting error,” according to a draft opinion by an influential committee of 19 scientists and academics.

By Lorenzo Cotula (PhD), lorenzo.cotula@iied.org, senior researcher at the International Institute of Environment and Development, UK

Remember the plan to burn wood in Port Hawkesbury to create power for Nova Scotia Power?

You may have been thinking that plan was dead now that the NewPage mill is being idled, but you may be wrong.

How do you value an ecosystem? Putting a dollar value on natural systems such as forests has long beset economists.

Forests provide “non-use values,” such as the pleasure of knowing that a natural system exists, and recreational values, such as hunting, fishing and wildlife viewing. But recently, ecologists have also sought to value a broader set of “ecosystem services,” or the goods and services that ecosystems provide to a market economy.

Enligna Canada closed its wood pellet mill in Upper Musquodoboit, Nova Scotia several days ago.

Today comes the news that the company has formally been placed in receivership and 50 people are out of work.