An article in Food Manufacture reports on Langage Farm’s new £3.4 million anaerobic digestion project which, by the end of its first year of operation, will process 12,000 tonnes of food waste collected from households across the county by local authorities. The facility will also process on-farm dairy wastes, converting these fuels into renewable heat and electricity. The renewable energy will not only power the dairy products production, but also export surplus energy to the National Grid.

This article in Food Manufacture is interesting – it argues that the proliferation of brands advertising their local identity means that individual companies find it hard to stand out; and that large retailers are only interested in carrying one regionally branded product in each category because of limited space in the freezer section, me

The Committee on Climate Change has published its third annual report to Parliament on the progress that Government is making in meeting carbon budgets and in reducing GHG emissions.The CCC’s report finds that emissions increased by 3% in 2010, mainly as a result of the colder winter months. After adjusting for weather impacts, emissions were broadly flat. It says that this is incompatible with the 3% annual average emissions reduction required to meet the first four carbon budgets and that a significant acceleration in the pace of emissions reductions is therefore required.

A new Foresight report is out: this one provides an overview of the evidence of threats and opportunities to the UK from international climate change, and considers how these may be considered by policymakers to ensure the UK is able to remain competitive, secure and able to protect the wellbeing of the nation. 

This paper reports on the devlopment of an approach, or tool that enables manufacturers to develop a wide range of ideas to make stepwise reductions in the greenhouse  gas emissions associated with its products. Such ideas should be long term and should not logically follow from business as usual. In other words it's not about making thinking up how to make existing products greener but how to develop products or services that have low emission intensity as part of their spec.

Wind farms in China and small-scale solar panels on rooftops in Europe were largely responsible for last year's 32% rise in green energy investments worldwide according to the latest annual report on renewable energy investment trends issued by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).  Last year, investors pumped a record $211 billion into renewables -- about one-third more than the $160 billion invested in 2009, and a 540% rise since 2004.

Some of the authors are FCRN mailing list membersa. Shackley, S., Hammond, J., Gaunt, J. and Ibarrola, R. (2011), ‘The feasibility and costs of biochar deployment in the UK’,  Carbon Management, 3(2): 335-356.

The Health Council of the Netherlands has published an advisory report addressing the question as to whether a healthy diet is also eco-friendly in terms of land use, greenhouse gas emissions, and biodiversity.  The report was undertaken following a request by the former Dutch minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality.