Weekly News Round Up

A little earlier than usual - this week's round-up of news and updates on previous stories

• IPIC has responded to reports that it was in talks with Bayer MaterialScience and four other global petrochemical groups.
  An IPIC spokesman commented: "At present there are no firm plans to do anything with Bayer MaterialScience, or any other chemical company. A number of initiatives are under consideration internally, but nothing has been decided."
  

• Three officials at a subsidiary of the UK mining company Vedanta Resources have been arrested in India following the collapse of a chimney in one of its power stations which killed 41 people.
  The tragic incident occurred in September at Vedanta's Bharat Aluminium Company (Balco) power plant in Chhattisgarh, central India, during heavy storms. After a two-month investigation, local police have arrested Balco's vice-president, who was also the plant's project manager, its associate general manager and a graduate trainee engineer
  

• The chief executive of the UK Chemical Industries Association (CIA) has warned  that the UK runs the risk of losing out to its international competitors if the government does not tackle fundamental issues such as regulation, energy and credit availability. In a CIA survey of business investment attitudes, 68% of British chemical and pharmaceutical business leaders said they had felt overburdensome regulation in the UK would act as a barrier to further investment. The survey also showed that 53% of those questioned said energy security and price would act as a key barrier, while 37% cited the problem of credit availability.
  
  
• The UK Times Newspaper published the results of a poll on the views of the UK public on climate change. According to the Times, only 41% accept as an established scientific fact that global warming is taking place and is largely man-made. 32% believe that the link is not yet proved; 8% say that it is environmentalist propaganda to blame man and 15% say that the world is not warming.

• The US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has confirmed that that spilled gasoline vaporised and caused a fire and blast in late October that destroyed more than 10 petroleum storage tanks owned by Caribbean Petroleum in Puerto Rico.
  

Bayer Outlines Energy Saving Measures

photo : Dimplex

Bayer MaterialScience has taken a very proactive stance in highlighting a number of the measures that it is taking to meet its goal of cutting specific greenhouse gas emissions per ton of product sold by 25% by 2020.

To achieve this target, Bayer has announced the following steps

• Implementation of a novel energy management system to cut energy use  throught its manufacturing and supply chain. In particular the company aims to reduce consumption at its 60 most energy-intensive sites 10% by 2012
• Introduction of a new chlorine production process, with the highly energy-efficient oxygen-depolarised cathode process (uses 30% less electricity than equivalent processes)
• Developing and implementing a new approach for supplying materials and technologies for energy-efficient housing
• Designing several company buildings to be ultra-efficient, using significantly less energy than buildings of an equivalent size

This blog has posted several times on the question of anthropogenic global warming. However, whilst this particular debate will rage well beyond Copenhagen, the case for a sustainable approach to business is absolutely clear.

Bayer's approach is to be applauded and makes great business sense, in terms of company image, in terms of sustainability and in terms of long term energy cost saving

Climate Change Debate Continues

At the forthcoming carbon sequestration conference in London, US Energy Secretary Steven Chu will be speaking about carbon capture and storage (CCS). Mr Chu has has talked of 'overwhelming scientific evidence' that carbon emissions from fossil fuels are causing climate changes.

Although most national governments take the same line, sceptics point to the fact that global temperatures have fallen since 1998, which was the warmest year on record.

In Paul Hudson's fascinating BBC blog, the various arguments are spelled out. There are many points of view regarding the causes of global warming (natural vs man-made) and the validity of the various studies.

Very interesting and very pertinent as we approach the Copenhagen summit and the introduction of the various emissions trading bills around the world. To quote Paul Hudson ' The debate about what's causing global warming is far from over. Some would say it's hotting up.'