Rekindled

This weekend I finally switched to a green electricity supplier.  That means I will be buying electricity from renewable sources like windmills.  The the three biggest and best known of these companies are Ecotricity, Good Energy and Green Energy.  There are also two newer companies called LoCO2 and OVO.  The Green Energy Marketplace has a really handy guide to green energy tariffs, and has even ranked them from 1 -5 stars (although there aren’t currently any 5 star rated suppliers).

I didn’t even consider signing up to a so-called green tariff with one of the mainstream energy suppliers.  They are required by law to buy a certain amount of energy from renewable sources, so in effect their green tariffs are charging you extra for something they would have to do anyway.  It may mean that you are getting more renewable energy, but it also means that everyone else (on a standard tariff) is getting less.  It certainly isn’t going to make any difference in the long term.

So which of the other green electricity tariffs is best?  It’s not a clear cut decision.  There are two main types: one that buys 100% green energy from the grid and sells it to you, and one that buys a mix of green and brown but invests in new sources of renewable energy.  I think both types make a valid contribution.  Companies that buy green energy from the grid encourage people to set up their own renewable energy projects.  This is a slower, more organic kind of growth in renewable energy.  However, I think that direct investment in new wind farms, for example, is going to make more of an impact more quickly.

In the end I decided to go with Ecotricity, on their slightly more expensive 100% renewable tariff.  They fall into the second category, and use all the money you spend on your energy bills to build new sources of renewable electricity, so each year they are using a bit more green and a bit less brown electricity.  Over the past 5 years that is an average of £450 per customer per year.  Their closest rival is Scottish Power, who invested a measly £27.65 per customer!  I’m not quite sure what happens to the money that Green Energy and Good Energy make because they didn’t invest anything at all.  Admittedly these stats do come from Ecotricity, but I cannot find any information on the Green Energy or Good Energy websites to contradict this.

PS. If you are thinking of switching to a green energy supplier and you decide to go with Ecotricity too, you can get 2 years’ free digital subscription to the Ecologist.

Today, www.350.org are staging the largest day of environmental action in history.  Over 2500 events are going on around the world.

What is 350?  It is the number (in parts per million, or ppm) scientists say is the highest level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere where we will be able to avoid human and natural disaster due to climate change.  At the moment the level of CO2 in the air is 390ppm, which is way too high.  To bring this down to safe levels we need politicians to take action now, to switch our energy supplies from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

To find an event near you, go to http://www.350.org/map.

Want to know more about climate change?

• BBC Climate Change is a great introduction to climate change from the BBC Weather Centre.  It explains the science and evidence, the possible effects and what we can do.
• The Royal Society has more on the science behind climate change as well as an exploration of controversies.
• For more in depth information try the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
• You can get the latest news on climate change at The Guardian, The Independent, or BBC News.

What is being done about it?

• Check out TckTckTck and Countdown to Copenhagen for information on the UN summit of world leaders in December 2009.
• Find out what the UK Government is doing at Act on CO2.

Want to take action?

• Commit to cutting your carbon footprint by 10% in 2010 by joining the 10:10 campaign.  If you sign up you can win an eco-makeover for your home, worth at least £15,000!
• The Energy Saving Trust have lots of advice on how to save energy – and money.
• Greenpeace have a handy guide on How to Save the Climate.
• There are various actions you can take to show your support for a strong climate agreement in Copenhagen.  You can add your name to campaigns from the WWF, Oxfam and the UN’s own Seal the Deal, or join the Friends of the Earth demonstration The Wave on the 5th December.

Blog Action Day

Join Greenpeace’s plot to fight the government’s frankly insane and hypocritical plans to build a new runway at Heathrow:

The Ecologist argues that the runway can’t even be justified on economic grounds: http://www.theecologist.org/pages/archive_detail.asp?content_id=2038