'Climate emergency' declared by Welsh Government

A "climate emergency" has been declared in Wales following protests demanding politicians take action on climate change.

Protests in Cardiff last week saw cyclists ride
 slowly through the city, disrupting traffic.

The Welsh Government's Lesley Griffiths said she hoped the declaration would trigger "a wave of action”.

Climate change threatens Wales' health, economy, infrastructure and natural environment, she said.

Plaid Cymru welcomed the move but said it should mean the proposed upgrade to the M4 should be scrapped.

Read the story from the BBC  - “'Climate emergency' declared by Welsh Government.”

Major flooding in UK now likely every year, warns lead climate adviser

The flooded high street in Cockermouth in the
Lake District, days after Storm Desmond
 on 6 December 2015.

Major flooding in the UK is now likely to happen every year but ministers still have no coherent long-term plan to deal with it, the government’s leading adviser on the impacts of climate change has warned.

Boxing Day in 2015 saw severe floods sweep Lancashire and Yorkshire, just weeks after Storm Desmond swamped Cumbria and parts of Scotland and Wales. The flooding, which caused billions of pounds of damage, led to the government publishing a review in September which anticipates 20-30% more extreme rainfall than before.

But Prof John Krebs, who leads the work on adapting to global warming for the government’s official advisers, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), told the Guardian: “We are still a long way from where we need to be, in that there is still not a coherent long-term view.”

Read Damian Carrington’s story in The Guardian - “Major flooding in UK now likely every year, warns lead climate adviser.”

'Energy positive' house opens in Wales

B

ritain’s first low cost ‘energy positive’ house, which can generate more electricity than its occupants will use, opens on Thursday despite George Osborne axing plans to make house builders meet tough low carbon housing targets from next year.

The modest three-bedroom house built in just 16 weeks on an industrial estate outside Bridgend in Wales cost just £125,000 to build and, said its Cardiff University designers, will let occupants use the sun to pay the rent.

Using batteries to store the electricity which it generates from the solar panels that function as the roof, and having massive amounts of insulation to reduce energy use in winter months, it should be able to export electricity to the national grid for eight months of the year.

Read the Guardian story - “Britain's first 'energy positive'house opens in Wales”.