Rob Edwards

Expert call for Scotland to have more control over energy policy

from Sunday Herald, 29 June 2014

A leading group of 16 academics and experts has made a powerful plea for Scotland to have much more control over its energy policy to escape Westminster’s backing for “bankrupt” nuclear power. 

Energy specialists from universities in Aberdeen, St Andrews, Edinburgh, Manchester, Cardiff and London have written a joint letter to the Sunday Herald arguing that Scotland should gain control over “a large portion” of the financial incentives for renewables energy schemes like wind power.

They are also urging the establishment of a Scottish energy regulator to help renewables by encouraging investment in local electricity grids. They condemn the plans for more energy devolution by Labour, LibDem and Conservative parties as “feeble”. 

But they say that the changes they are advocating can be made either under independence or increased devolution. “Scotland needs greater energy powers to escape from English advocacy of economically and politically bankrupt nuclear power and to counteract declining support from the UK government for Scottish priorities for renewable energy,” they argue (full letter below).

Their intervention has been enthusiastically welcomed by the Scottish government. “This is a devastating critique of UK energy policy from leading energy academics which blows a huge hole in the UK government’s energy policy,” said the energy minister, Fergus Ewing MSP.

National Trust under fire for failing to protect seabirds from boatloads of divers

from Sunday Herald, 22 June 2014 

The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) has come under fire for being a “toothless watchdog” in the wake of a fierce row over the activities of boatloads of divers in a national nature reserve.

NTS owns and manages St Abb’s Head on the Berwickshire coast, home to one of the largest mainland breeding seabird colonies in the UK. But the steep rocky inlets that characterise the headland have also become increasingly popular for visiting sub-aqua enthusiasts because they have some of Britain’s finest underwater scenery.

Charter boats bring many thousands of people close in to the cliffs every year so they can dive to see the sights. But conservationists say that this is disturbing the birds, including nesting kittiwakes and guillemots.

The alarm has been raised by Graham White, an environmental author who lives nearby in Coldstream. He visited St Abb’s Head to watch the birds earlier this month and was horrified by what he saw. 

“What I witnessed was a dive boat derby of 40-foot, 900-horsepower vessels making high speed runs across the mouths of the nesting fiords and dropping off divers deep within the fiords,” he said.

Green bank under cross-party fire for backing big biomass

from Sunday Herald, 22 June 2014

The UK government’s new Green Investment Bank in Edinburgh is facing its first protests for backing the burning of millions of tonnes of wood from abroad in power stations.

MSPs from three political parties, environmental groups and community representatives have this weekend written to the bank saying they are “deeply concerned” that it is supporting big biomass plants. Demonstrations are also planned at its annual meetings in Edinburgh and London this week.

The bank has loaned £50 million to help the UK’s largest power station, Drax in North Yorkshire, switch from burning coal to burning wood. But critics say this will mean having to import up to 15 million tonnes of trees a year from North America and is a “false solution” to climate pollution.

There are also fears that the bank could rescue floundering plans for new wood-burning plants at Grangemouth and Rosyth. The controversial proposals have planning permission, but the developers, Forth Ports and the energy company SSE, pulled out in March.

A joint letter to the bank signed by 18 organisations and individuals says that backing polluting biomass plants undermines the bank’s credibility as an environmentally responsible investor. It urges the bank to revoke its loan for Drax, and rule out financial support for plants at Rosyth and Grangemouth. 

As bees disappear, one is successfully heading north

from Sunday Herald, 22 June 2014

Amidst mounting worries about disappearing bees, one hardy, ginger-fringed bumblebee is bucking the trend by spreading north.

The tree bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum) has been detected in eastern Scotland for the first time, providing new evidence that this distinctive, foreign bee is establishing a foothold north of the border. 

Tree bumblebees arrived in the south of England from France in 2001. Since then they have gradually colonised the country, and were first detected in the west of Scotland last summer.

Now they have been seen in Edinburgh and East Lothian, and are expected by experts to move to Fife and then cross the Tay to help pollinate Scotland’s famous raspberries and other soft fruit crops.

A tree bumblebee was spotted and photographed earlier this month by East Lothian Council’s countryside ranger, Jen Edwards, in her back garden in East Linton. She also heard of a second sighting near Traprain Law, near Haddington.

“We are tremendously excited by these appearances and are sure more sightings will shortly be confirmed,” she told the Sunday Herald. The council has introduced grazing animals at sites across East Lothian in an attempt to reduce gorse, encourage wild flowers and boost wildlife.

Conservationists are encouraging people to look out for tree bumblebees so that their progress can continue to be mapped. The bees have a black head, a fuzzy ginger-brown thorax, a black abdomen and a white tail, and often nest in bird boxes.

US fired uranium weapons at Iraqi civilians in breach of guidelines, says report

from The Guardian, 19 June 2014

US forces fired depleted uranium (DU) weapons at civilian areas and troops in Iraq in breach of official advice meant to prevent “unnecessary suffering” in conflicts, says a new report.

Coordinates revealing where US jets and tanks fired nearly 10,000 DU rounds in Iraq during the war in 2003 have been obtained by the Dutch peace group, PAX. This is the first time that any US DU firing coordinates have been released, despite previous requests by the United Nations Environment Programme and the Iraqi government. 

According to PAX’s report, the new data show that many of the DU rounds were fired in or near populated areas of Iraq, including As Samawah, Nasiriyah and Basrah. At least 1,500 rounds were also aimed at troops, the group says.

This conflicts with legal advice from the US Air Force in 1975 suggesting that DU weapons should only be used against hard targets like tanks and armoured vehicles, the report says. This advice, designed to comply with international law by minimising deaths and injuries to urban populations and troops, was “largely ignored” by US forces, it argues.

A six-page memo by Major James Miles and Will Carroll from the international law division of USAF’s Office of the Judge Advocate General concluded in March 1975 that DU weapons would be legal. But it recommended imposing restrictions on how they were used.

“Use of this munition solely against personnel is prohibited if alternative weapons are available,” the memo suggested. This was for legal reasons “related to the prohibitions against unnecessary suffering and poison”.

Exposed: the dirty beaches given prizes for being clean

from Sunday Herald, 15 June 2014

Eight beaches across Scotland officially condemned as “poor” because their polluted bathing waters make people sick have been given prizes for “good water quality” by the government-backed charity, Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB).

Another 12 bathing waters contaminated by human and animal faeces and rated as merely “sufficient” by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) have also won KSB’s much-trumpeted seaside awards for 2014. 

The awards have been denounced as “worthless” by environmentalists and criticised as “embarrassing” by politicians. They have earned KSB nearly £20,000 in application fees from local authorities and others.

A new analysis by Sepa has rated 20 of Scotland’s most popular bathing waters as “poor” because they fail to meet European pollution limits currently being brought into force. The waters are badly contaminated with toxic bacteria like E-coli from overflowing sewers or animal wastes washed off the land.

Yet eight of these dirty beaches - in South Ayrshire, Edinburgh, Fife, Angus, Aberdeenshire and Moray – have been celebrated by KSB as “some of the cleanest and best managed beaches in the country”. One – Central Beach in Nairn – was chosen by the Scottish tourism minister, Fergus Ewing MSP, to launch the awards two weeks ago.

Safety awards for nuclear bomb plants withdrawn after fire

11 June 2014

Britain’s nuclear bomb factories have had three safety awards withdrawn because of a major fire, and they are now under investigation for faulty fire alarms in radioactive waste buildings.

AWE, a private consortium that operates nuclear weapons facilities at Aldermaston and Burghfield in Berkshire for the Ministry of Defence, has been forced to return “gold awards” it won from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA). This follows a £200,000 fine imposed in 2013 for breaching safety rules during a fire at an explosives plant that injured a worker in 2010.

At the same time the government’s safety watchdog, the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), is considering legal enforcement action against AWE over two recent incidents in which building fire detection systems were found to be defective. One detector at a medium-level radioactive facility had been out of action for “an extended period”.

Critics say that the AWE has a poor fire safety record, and raise questions about its ability to ensure safety at Aldermaston and Burghfield. AWE, however, insists that it has taken action to rectify the problems and is working hard to improve safety.

Aldermaston suffered its worst fire in recent history just after 9 o’clock in the evening on 3 August 2010 when workers were making nitrocellulose lacquer for explosives. One worker was left with burns to his face and arm, a building was damaged, local residents were evacuated and roads closed.

AWE pleaded guilty at Reading Crown Court on 16 May 2013 to failing to ensure the safety of its employees in breach of the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act. The company was fined £200,000 and was ordered to pay over £80,000 in legal costs plus £2,500 compensation to the injured employee, Ashley Emery (29).

For the sake of my people, Scotland must fulfil its climate promise

Comment, from Sunday Herald, 08 June 2014

by Yeb Sano, climate change commissioner for the Philippines

If more communities are to avoid the destructive impacts of storms and typhoons caused by climate change - like the one that devastated my homeland - then developed countries like Scotland must deliver on their promises to cut their emissions. They need to set a positive example, demonstrating that a transition to a low carbon economy is not only achievable, but highly desirable.

No one can forget the images of the Philippines in November 2013: scenes of destruction, boats beached on the shore, vast areas littered with rubble and debris, streets no longer recognisable, people mindlessly walking around immense wastelands of mud and debris looking for the remains of their houses and for signs that their loved ones are alive.

Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), the most powerful storm to have ever made landfall, caused massive devastation in my family’s home town and hundreds of other towns. It claimed many thousands of lives, flattened millions of homes, and left many with nothing but the clothes they had on their backs and an already poor country with a clean-up bill of $36bn.

At the time, I was away from my home, negotiating for my country at the UN’s international climate change conference in Warsaw, Poland, unsure of even my own family’s fate. In the UN world of climate jargon and acronyms, it felt important to me to highlight the real human effects of climate change in plain English.

Ministers under pressure to cut climate pollution as targets missed for third time

from Sunday Herald, 08 June 2014

The Scottish government is coming under mounting pressure to make new cuts in climate pollution as it faces failing to meet its statutory targets for reducing emissions for the third year running.

An unprecedented alliance of all the opposition parties is privately urging Scottish ministers to agree moves that would cut carbon pollution from vehicles, farms, houses and government.

At the same time, a Philippine diplomat Yeb Sano, famed for weeping and fasting at the world’s last major climate summit, has made a passionate plea for Scotland to keep its promises and abide by its climate law.

On Tuesday, ministers are due to announce long-awaited figures on Scotland’s carbon emissions for 2012. They are widely expected to show that, as in 2010 and 2011, emissions will not have been reduced in line with the levels required under the Climate Change (Scotland) Act.

This was predicted by the UK’s expert Committee on Climate Change, which warned in March that emissions in Scotland were likely to have increased in 2012. A combination of a cold winter, burning more coal in power stations and a small increase in economic activity “would suggest a level of emissions higher than the target in this year,” it said.

Revealed: the 106 Cold War nuclear targets across the UK

from The Guardian, 05 June 2014

The UK government drew up a "top secret" list of 106 cities, towns and military bases across the country as "probable nuclear targets" in the early 1970s, according to documents released by the National Archives.

During the cold war, a list of the places thought likely to come under nuclear attack by the Soviet Union was agreed by military commanders, the intelligence services and the Cabinet Office under Conservative prime minister Edward Heath.

Although most of Britain's major cities were included, there were some notable omissions. Cambridge was on the target list but not Oxford; Bristol but not Brighton; and Edinburgh but not Aberdeen.

The list of "probable nuclear targets in the United Kingdom" approved by the Cabinet Office was circulated to defence chiefs marked "top secret" by air commodore Brian Stanbridge on 2 May 1972. "It is not a comprehensive list of all targets likely to be attacked in the event of general war," he wrote.

It included 38 towns and cities, 37 UK and US air bases, 25 control, communications and radar facilities and six naval sites.

The town and country divide: the fuel poverty suffered by old people in rural areas

from Sunday Herald, 01 June 2014

Up to three-quarters of elderly people living in rural areas of Scotland are suffering fuel poverty and are “falling through the cracks” in government policy, according to an expert report to be launched tomorrow.

Growing numbers of old people on the islands and in countryside regions are struggling to meet escalating bills for heating their homes. They are much worse off than old people in urban areas, with many having to cut back on food, transport and other essentials if they want to stay warm.

The risks to people’s health can be “catastrophic”, experts warn, leading to thousands of extra deaths every winter. Cold, damp homes can cause hypothermia, and make many illnesses worse, including arthritis, respiratory and circulatory conditions, they say.

A comprehensive new analysis by Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) also reveals a myriad of linked problems facing some rural areas. Young people are leaving, transport costs are high and affordable housing can be in short supply. 

The report by SRUC shows that nearly 60 per cent of the over-60s in rural areas are in fuel poverty, compared to 45 per cent in urban areas. “Rural households in which the highest income householder is aged 60 plus are more likely than not to be living in fuel poverty,” it concludes.