environment 1

Sweden is to take the biggest energy step of any advanced western economy by trying to wean itself off oil completely within 15 years - without building a new generation of nuclear power stations.

The attempt by the country of 9 million people to become the world's first practically oil-free economy is being planned by a committee of industrialists, academics, farmers, car makers, civil servants and others, who will report to parliament in several months.

The intention, the Swedish government said yesterday, is to replace all fossil fuels with renewables before climate change destroys economies and growing oil scarcity leads to huge new price rises.

"Our dependency on oil should be broken by 2020," said Mona Sahlin, minister of sustainable development. "There shall always be better alternatives to oil, which means no house should need oil for heating, and no driver should need to turn solely to gasoline."

According to the energy committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, there is growing concern that global oil supplies are peaking and will shortly dwindle, and that a global economic recession could result from high oil prices.

Ms Sahlin has described oil dependency as one of the greatest problems facing the world. "A Sweden free of fossil fuels would give us enormous advantages, not least by reducing the impact from fluctuations in oil prices," she said. "The price of oil has tripled since 1996."

A government official said: "We want to be both mentally and technically prepared for a world without oil. The plan is a response to global climate change, rising petroleum prices and warnings by some experts that the world may soon be running out of oil."

Sweden, which was badly hit by the oil price rises in the 1970s, now gets almost all its electricity from nuclear and hydroelectric power, and relies on fossil fuels

mainly for transport. Almost all its heating has been converted in the past decade to schemes which distribute steam or hot water generated by geothermal energy or waste heat. A1980 referendum decided that nuclear power should be phased out, but this has still not been finalised.

The decision to abandon oil puts Sweden at the top of the world green league table. Iceland hopes by 2050 to power all its cars and boats with hydrogen made from electricity drawn from renewable resources, and Brazil intends to power 80% of its transport fleet with ethanol derived mainly from sugar cane within five years.

Last week George Bush surprised analysts by saying that the US was addicted to oil and should greatly reduce imports from the Middle East. The US now plans a large increase in nuclear power.

The British government, which is committed to generating 10% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2012, last month launched an energy review which has a specific remit to consider a large increase in nuclear power. But a report by accountants Ernst & Young yesterday said that the UK was falling behind in its attempt to meet its renewables target.

"The UK has Europe's best wind, wave and tidal resources yet it continues to miss out on its economic potential," said Jonathan Johns, head of renewable energy at Ernst & Young.

Energy ministry officials in Sweden said they expected the oil committee to recommend further development of bio-fuels derived from its massive forests, and by expanding other renewable energies such as wind and wave power.

Sweden has a head start over most countries. In 2003,26% of all the energy consumed came from renewable sources - the EU average is 6%. Only 32% of the energy came from oil - down from 77% in 1970.

The Swedish government is working with carmakers Saab and Volvo to develop cars and lorries that burn ethanol and other biofuels. Last year the Swedish energy agency said it planned to get the public sector to move out of oil. Its health and library services are being given grants to convert from oil use and homeowners are being encouraged with green taxes. The paper and pulp industries use bark to produce energy, and sawmills burn wood chips and sawdust to generate power.

Standby Britain: How it fuels our energy crisis

Appliances on standby pump one million tons of carbon into the atmosphere. Wasted energy of appliances on standby could power 400,000 homes. Up to 85 per cent of power used by a video recorder is consumed on standby. Government says Britain would save 240,000 tons of C0₂ emissions by switching off televisions

Ben Russell, Political Correspondent

23 June 2005

One million tons of a damaging greenhouse gas is pumped into the atmosphere each year by televisions, DVD players and other appliances left on standby in British living rooms.

Gadgets apparently turned off, but with their standby lights illuminated, are a little-recognised but significant contributor to global warming, figures released yesterday show.

Each year they waste enough electricity to power a city the size of Birmingham for a year or keep Britain's street lights burning for four years, and are a major contributor to the emissions which are polluting the atmosphere. Millions of "sleeping" video recorders, set-top boxes, washing machines and radios in homes and offices accounted for one million tons of carbon emissions, approaching 1 per cent of the nation's total.

Researchers said they represented the equivalent of enough carbon dioxide to fill 80 million double decker buses. Up to 85 per cent of the power used by an average video recorder is consumed while it is not in use, while many appliances use as much power on standby as they do when they are turned on.

Next month, Tony Blair will host a meeting of G8 leaders at Gleneagles in Scotland, where agreement to take steps to combat climate change will be seen as a key element in the success or otherwise of the summit.

Campaigners urged the Prime Minister yesterday to tackle domestic sources of climate change as well as approaching the issue from a global perspective. Estimates suggest that electrical goods on standby across the G8 nations waste the equivalent of the electricity generated by 20 power stations.

Martyn Williams, of Friends of the Earth, said: "To achieve Mr Blair's ambitions at the G8 he also has to deal with the myriad issues at home that will cut carbon emissions. He has to cut British emissions by 3 per cent a year and dealing with this issue will go some way towards that."

Ministers insist they are leading efforts to tackle the problem. Elliot Morley, the Environment minister, will sign a new EU directive next month aimed at cutting European energy consumption by 20 per cent by setting standards for electrical appliances, boilers and fridges.

But environmentalists are demanding tougher international rules to cut the power that appliances use while on standby. Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrats' environment spokesman, who obtained yesterday's figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), said: "I am astounded by this. This is absolutely shocking with climate change the biggest threat we face appliances are pumping out millions of tons of greenhouse gases for no good purpose whatsoever.

"Manufacturers should ensure that appliances should only be put on standby by choice. When things are turned off they should stay off."

Mr Williams, of FoE, said cutting waste from equipment could meet a quarter of Britain's annual emissions target. "This is a big climate change problem. You start off with a television, then you have a video, then a DVD and then a set-top box. We can agree rules to prevent children injuring themselves with toys; why can't they have rules on this?"

Eighty-nine per cent of households have a video recorder, half own a DVD player, 99 per cent have a television, 58 per cent have a CD player and 58 per cent contain a home computer, according figures from 2003, the latest available. Research by the government-backed Energy-Saving Trust shows 62 million television sets used 8 per cent of their total average daily energy consumption while they were in standby mode. The average television set is left on standby for more than 17 hours a day while most set-top boxes and video recorders are never turned off.

Stephen Reilly, a spokesman for the trust, said it was "scary" that half of Britons were not aware household power consumption contributed to climate change. He said appliances left on standby contributed to 50 million tons of unnecessary CO₂ emissions from homes each year, putting an average £200 a year on energy bills. He said: "People don't think about this. This is definitely a contributor to climate change. It's wasted energy."

A spokesman for Defra said the department had negotiated a significant cut in the power consumption of television sets while on standby and was working to expand guidelines to cover other appliances.

Mr Morley urged consumers to ensure they did not waste power. He said: "The energy we use at home contributes to climate change so saving energy is not just good for people's pockets. It is good for the environment. About half of our target cuts in carbon emissions to combat climate change have to come through energy efficiency... switching off electrical appliances rather than leaving them on standby makes a huge difference and is a measure we can all take."

* Dishwashers left "on" at the end of their cycle consume 70 per cent of the power used when they are running.

* The average television is left on standby for up to 17.5 hours a day Last year Britain's 62 million television sets consumed about 8 per cent of their energy consumption in standby mode.

* Washing machines use just under 20 per cent of their normal electricity requirement on standby.

* Tumble-dryers can use 38 per cent of power while waiting at the end of a cycle.

* If lights were turned off when not in use it would prevent 375,000 tons of CO2 emissions and save £55m in bills.

* There is little difference between the power requirement of digital receivers when they are on and on standby.

* Experts say the total power used while an appliance is on standby can equal the electricity used during the time it is on.

* Other appliances with high standby power use are cordless telephones, radios and stereos.

Last untamed areas of the Earth are disappearing

BY STEVE CONNOR Science Editor

AN UNPRECEDENTED period of environmental degradation is threatening the survival of the world's mountain regions, according to a United Nations report published yesterday.

Wildlife in some of the most remote and beautiful regions on Earth is suffering from a sustained environmental assault by everything from guerrilla warfare to global warming.

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report warns that time is running out for some of the planet's most fragile ecosystems. In the UNEP's first worldwide assessment of the impact on mountains caused by natural disasters and human activities, scientists from its World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge have identified seven primary threats to mountain regions: natural hazards, fire, climate change, the growth of roads and other infrastructures, violent human conflict, deforestation and agricultural intensification.

Mark Collins, the director of the centre, said the report overlaid maps of affected areas with data on threatened species to identify the priorities for mountain conservation.

"The result was stunning. We could clearly see which areas are suffering most due to a combination of pressures or impacts. So for the first time we have a global snapshot of the threats and vulnerability of different mountain regions," Dr Collins said. From Mount Olympus in Greece to Mount Fuji in Japan, mountains have played a critical role in cultural tradition and have been a source of wonder and inspiration to generations of people throughout the world, according to Klaus Toepfer, executive director of UNEP.

"Our reverence for these unique wilderness areas has been partly based on their remoteness, their inaccessibility. But this new report highlights how, like so many parts of the world, some of these last wild areas are fast disappearing," Mr Toepfer said.

UNEP scientists estimate that almost half of Africa's mountain regions are under the plough or the hoof, with about 10 per cent of mountain areas converted to cropland and 34 per cent used for grazing. The great mountainous tracts of Asia and South America are going the same way. Only the mountains of North and Central America are approaching a pristine state, with just 14 per cent of the land here given over to either grazing or crops. "These losses are not just regrettable but threaten the health and well-being of us all. Mountains are the water towers of the world, from which the world's mighty rivers spring," Mr Toepfer said.

The report, called Mountain Watch, shows that some 41 per cent of mountain land has been subjected to "high intensity human conflict" between 1946 and 2001. This compares with 26 per cent of non-mountain land. Global warming is also threatening many high-altitude regions, such as the

Monteverde cloud forest of Costa Rica and the glaciers of Kilimanjaro in Kenya whose icecap has shrunk by more than a half in 40 years.

UNEP estimates that 98 per cent of Greenland's mountains will be suffering severely by global warming by 2055, along with most of the high altitude glaciers of South America such as the Cordillera Blanca in Peru.

The scientists say conservation efforts should be concentrated on the mixed forests of the Caucasus, the moist forests of the north-western Andes and the montane ecosystems of California.

Wild mountain reindeer in Norway were also threatened by the construction of recreational resorts and cabins in what was once one of the most remote regions of Europe, said Christian Nellemann, a scientist with UNEP

"The reindeer population will have to be reduced greatly in the coming years to avoid overgrazing in the remaining few undisturbed areas," Dr Nellemann said. "They may even disappear from many of the current ranges. It is a tragedy."