Germany is gripped by football world cup fever ahead of its semi-final clash with Italy tonight. What is not making the news is the fact that the German government has just allowed German industry to emit millions more tonnes of carbon dioxide.

The National Allocation Plan II, that covers policy from 2008 to 2012, and which has just received cabinet approval, allows industry and electricity companies to emit 482 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year. This is actually an increase of 8 million tonnes from the year before and goes against the commitments that Germany made under the Kyoto

BP’s woes continue. Hurricanes, explosions, spills, price-fixing and now a production short-fall. BP admitted yesterday that it produced less oil in the past three months than many analysts had predicted, leading some suggesting it could miss its crucial production targets for the year.
The company has blamed Venezuelan President Hugo Cavez for the shortfall at the same time as Chavez is demanding that BP give up even more of the oil produced from the country.

Maybe Tony Blair should have changed a few more light bulbs than just the one outside Downing Street, (see blog below), as Labour has admitted it will break a key election pledge to radically cut CO2 emissions. Although the target is a 20 per cent cut by 2010 - Labour has acknowledged emissions will only be reduced by 16 per cent.

Sometimes it’s the simple things that are best. By just using low-energy light bulbs and other efficient lighting systems we could prevent some 16 billion tons of carbon from being emitted over the next 25 years, according to a report by the International Energy Agency. Just using widely available technology would save more than £1,300bn concludes the IEA.

Just as Americans drive bigger cars (see recent blogs) they also use more lights. The average American family uses 10 times more artificial light than a Chinese home and more than 30 times as much as an Indian home.

However, an estimated 1.6 billion

I would just like to tell you that we haven't specifically got it in for BP - the oil giant seems to have it in for itself.

Hot on the heels of news of the company being investigated for price manipulation and propane is the news that a group of prominent black leaders in the US including Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have announced a boycott of BP, saying the company gouges consumers and racially discriminates in its business practices. The company was targeted, Jackson says, because none of its upper-level executives are black and there are no black owners among

Lets carry on this theme for a minute. The US produces nearly half of global emissions from vehicles, because they drive bigger more fuel inefficient cars further than anyone else. These emissions cause climate change which in turn causes more frequent hurricanes. More hurricanes and storms means more property damage and more property damage means higher insurance for property. All sounds a bit far fetched or does it?

Yesterday’s New York Times reported how homeowners in Florida are struggling to get insurance on their properties after two bad hurricane seasons. If they do get insurance the rates are extremely high.

So we now know that nearly half the global pollution coming from exhaust pipes is from US cars, because Americans drive bigger more fuel inefficient cars for longer than anyone else. So is that trend going to stop? No.

The big three US auto makers are in the midst of offering ridiculous bargains to tempt consumers to buy their big beasties. As the New York Times reported yesterday “To many car shoppers, $5,000 off might sound like the deal of the year. The truth is, it might not even be the best deal this week”.

Will the bad news ever stop for BP? US federal investigators have now charged the beleaguered oil giant with “secretly and illegally” cornering a portion of the U.S. propane market - a move that drove up heating and cooking costs for millions of poor and rural Americans.

Good article in today’s Independent on ethanol, which answers the question is ethanol the answer to reducing our CO2 emissions?

Mike McCarthy, the paper’s environment editor, replies “It would certainly seem so at first sight, not least because the fastest growing greenhouse gas emissions are those from the transport sector, and it is in road transport that biofuels have an immediate application. The best known biofuel, ethanol, which is made from sugar cane or sugar beet, is already being widely used as a motor vehicle fuel in Brazil, which is the world's biggest producer, making 16 billion litres of the stuff

One person who believes he can rid America of its gas-guzzling ways is Rep. Henry Waxman who along with twelve of his House colleagues, has introduced the “Safe Climate Act of 2006.”