Climate Change Now are organising the One Earth Concert on Jan 28th at the Millenium Stadium. Source: http://www.oneearthconcert.com/
According to their web site Climate Change Now is "an independent and non-political initiative set up to engage the global public in socially and environmentally responsible trade and living". They have an impressive collection of commercial 'supporters' including Honda, Hilton, EMI and non commercial supporters including the United Nations Energy Initiative. Source: http://www.climatechangenow.com/index.php?page_text_keyword=about_us
It's hard to know what to make of this. On one hand they are promoting renewable energy which cannot be a bad thing. And in a superficial way, they are araising awareness about climate change. But they are a long way from suggesting carbon rationing; they don't even suggest we need to reduce personal energy use. So the Metro's headline "A 'Live 8' to save the world" is probably a bit of an overstatement.
The concert beneficiary is One Earth Trust. At least that's the BBC say at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/4545410.stm. But the web site say One Earth is a not for profit agency - not quite the same thing. If it is a trust, it would be interesting to know who the trustees are and what they will be doing with the money apart from promoting renewable energy and hybrid cars. The striking thing about the web site is that Greenpeace nor any other NGO is mentioned anywhere.
So what is going to happen on Jan 28th at the concert? Will videos showing the shrinking ice caps above the Poles be displayed above the artists heads? Perhaps. Are the artists going to be telling concert goers they shouldn't be taking short breaks to Barcelona? Doubt it. Will the artists be telling the government that we should be shutting down runways at Stanstead rather than building new ones? Well not if the promoters have any say in this; Climate Change Now is a non political initiative. In any event, the BBC are broadcasting the concert and no doubt that they will have reminded the promoters that they will be censoring any political messages. Gosh this is the kind of family event that is safe for even Tony Blair to attend!
Interesting
Agree with your scepticism about the effectiveness of this, but on the plus side, it DOES appear to have gotten the words 'climate change' into the Sun and Mirror for the very first time.
Is climate change 'political'? Or is it too important for that? ;)
That's a rhetorical question, by the way.
So-called "renewable" energy
Climate Change Now make a claim "tackle climate change...for free" by switching to "renewable" energy, which is downright misleading. Some of the tariffs linked to do not affect the amounts of green/brown electricity supplied to the network. That is especially likely for tariffs that cost the same as standard tariff.
In the case of "Good Energy", switching to this does increase the greenness of the network supply by 4.5% of the total amount you consume, but still means it's good to be frugal with your electricity as your usage still mostly results in brown generation.
The real dangers are that people are fooled into thinking that once switched they needn't control usage (wrong) or that large-scale wind generation is as cheap as fossil fuel (wrong).
In UK, a certain proportion of all electricty generated has to be renewable under the Renewables Obligation, effectively subsidised by standard tariffs. The current target is 5.5% for 2005/06 rising to 15.4% by 2015/16. This is no bad thing, but it explains why "green" tariffs neither cost much more, nor have much (if any) effect on the total amount of green energy generated. Most or all of the "green" electricity being supplied is part of this statutory, cross-subsidised proportion and would have been generated anyway.
change
The only way that the percentage of renewable energy on the grid will grow at the appropriate rate is if there is public demand for it to do so. The BEST way to do that is to encourage people to switch to renewable energy as this will drive investment to the renewables sector.
With regard to them being apolitical, I presume this is why they have not got any of the other NGOs on their site, because thay are all political. I have seen support for the campaign and concert on the Oxfam site though so presume there is communication between the two.
I think it is important to remeber that the vast majority of the public are not environmentalists, but that we need to engage them if we have any hope of tackling climate change. It seems to me that One Earth Concert is an attempt to engage the unconverted with one of the most simple, but potentially effective solutions available.
They say they are apolitical, but if 1 million people make the switch that is the sort of positive public action that will putt the nuclear arguement to bed and that can't be a bad thing.
Strikes me that this is the sort of action we should be supporting, rather than trying to shoot holes in.
Conservatives endorse Climate Change Now
David Cameron and other shadow cabinet members public switched to "green" electricity today, attended by Zac Goldsmith. The Conservatives endorsed Climate Change Now and said they would encourage party members and the public to use the site to switch tariff. David Cameron switched to the NPower Juice tariff endorsed by Greenpeace, but never (before) by Friends of the Earth.
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/conservatives/story/0,,1688468,00.html
The Conservatives thereby claimed credit for a transition to renewables that was mostly predetermined by the government through the Renewables Obligation, the same government that they used the occasion to attack!
AMENDMENT: The Conservatives have apologised for claiming on a press release that FoE endorsed the switch and Climate Change Now. I understand further from Katie Elliot that Stop Climate Chaos decided not to support Climate Change Now, because switching to a Renewable tariff in the UK often has no benefit. However, they have also decided not to actively criticise it. FoE did not have information on the green additionality of green tariffs in other European countries.
Parent Conservatives/Climate Change Now story amended
The Conservatives have apologised for claiming that FoE endorsed Climate Change Now and the Conservatives' championship of it.
Renewable electricity suppliers
Having looked at how green electricity suppliers operate I have switched my green supplier to another one - Ecotricity - simply because it seems to be the only one that ploughs back its profits 100% into developing further renewable energy sources. Good Energy, which I was previously with, does nothing. I think this really should be an issue with suppliers if renewable energy is to be developed.
Ecologist article
Last year's Ecologist article - link taken from Ecotricity website. This .pdf version includes the inset box which says the compliance mechanism for the Renewables Obligation isn't that strong, interesting. So maybe Ecotricity are worth it after all? Still Zac seemed content in the photocall with David Cameron while the latter switched to the non-Ecologist recommended Juice tariff.
http://www.ecotricity.co.uk/acrobat/JeremySmith_articleJune05.pdf
One Earth Concert postponed
(Guy wrote this and i have reposted it here).
Just some info for your perusal.
1) The One Earth Concert - don't know how many are aware of this: it's been postponed, but for good reasons it sounds:-
"Due to a recent swell of support for the Climate Change Now campaign, the One Earth concert, set for Cardiff Millennium Stadium on January 28th will be postponed until later this year. Tickets for the existing event will be valid on the new date.
Postponing enables the campaign and concert to benefit from exciting opportunities that will help get the message out to even more people and make the concert even bigger. For more information please see the statement in the media section."
From the site, www.oneearthconcert.com