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UK carbon label sales ‘top £2bn’

Carbon reduction label (Image: Carbon Trust)Companies that add the label to products have to reduce emissions or risk being thrown off the scheme

Sales of products carrying labels that show the goods’ carbon footprint are set to pass £2bn a year, say the scheme’s operators.

The Carbon Trust, which oversees the accreditation programme, says nine out of 10 UK households bought a carbon-labelled product in the past 12 months.

Launched in 2007, the scheme covers more than 90 brands and 5,000 products, including pasta, bread and shampoo.

Critics question whether such schemes change people’s purchasing behaviour.

According to a study by the Centre for Retail Research, the Carbon Reduction Label reached the £2bn-a-year sales mark when supermarket Tesco decided to add its own-brand pasta range to the scheme.

Euan Murray, head of footprinting at the Carbon Trust, said the label was designed to help shoppers understand what brands were taking steps to cut their carbon footprints.

“It means [consumers] are using their spending power to drive chains within businesses and supply changes, both here in the UK and right around the world,” he told BBC News.

Carbon commitment

Products that are allowed to carry the footprint symbol have to commit to reducing their carbon emissions over a two-year period, or risk being thrown out of the scheme.

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The trust says every stage of a product’s lifecycle is assessed, from raw materials and packaging, to manufacture, transportation, sale to the end user, use and disposal.

The audit process is underpinned by a standard, known as PAS 2050 and managed by BSI British Standards, that is designed to offer a consistent assessment of the associated energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.

Critics have voiced concern that carbon labelling schemes fail to provide any meaningful information to shoppers, and risked penalising the products’ suppliers, particularly in developing nations.

Patricia Francis, executive director of the Geneva-based International Trade Centre (ITC), said: “Consumers are increasingly confused by the proliferation of environmental and social labels, [and they] do not always understand the meaning of carbon labels.

“Labels are not comprehensive; that is, they do not capture emissions such [as those] which result from driving to the supermarket or preparing the food – both of which are carbon-intensive activities,” she told BBC News.

Ms Francis added that the schemes were voluntary and shoppers did not necessarily buy the lower carbon product.

Asked whether the scheme reaching the £2bn threshold was a sign of the scheme’s success or whether it was because the label was just appearing on popular products in large retail stores, Mr Murray said he saw the two things as being the same.

Leading eco-labels in the UK

(Figures based on annual UK retail sales)

1. Red Tractor Scheme – £10bn

2. Carbon Reduction Label – £2bn

3. Soil Association – £1.5bn

4. Fair Trade – £0.8bn

5. Freedom Food – £0.1bn

Others: Rainforest Alliance; Marine Stewardship Council

(Source: Centre for Retail Research/Euromonitor)

“Success is getting the label on big-selling lines across supermarkets,” he commented. “Individuals can look out for brands, and know that they are rewarding brands that are helping to cut our carbon footprint. For me that is success; having (famous brands) on board means we can make a difference every day.”

Mr Murray said that the scheme was now hoping to raise awareness of the scheme and increase understanding of what the label means; he rejected the idea that it was only for big brands with big budgets.

“It is important that we get everyone involved,” he added.

Referring to a small-scale T-shirt making company, he said: “We were very happy to work with them, get them assessed and get them on the road to reducing their footprint.”

The trust has also been working with Sainsbury’s Dairy Development Group, made up of more than 320 individual dairy farms, which supplies milk to the supermarket.

“Each one of those farmers now has a carbon footprint measurement for the milk they produce,” Mr Murray explained.

“They understand what is is about their farm or operation that drives its carbon footprint.

“For us, it has been a great project to look at the differences between these farms, but it has also been a great chance to turn the footprint exercise into something real for businesses.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Somali pirates release minister

Map

A minister kidnapped by pirates in Somalia’s semi-autonomous region of Puntland has been freed.

Ports Minister Said Mohamed Rageh was ambushed last Friday and held in the remote pirate stronghold of Jariban.

His release came after negotiations between the pirates and Somali elders. Officials said no ransom was paid.

Analysts say the incident has been embarrassing to the Puntland administration, which has taken a hard line against piracy.

The BBC’s Ahmed Mohamed Ali in Garowe said two people were killed in the ambushes on Friday – one person on the pirates’ side when security guards opened fire in the initial ambush and a guard in the evening attack.

Puntland’s interior ministry said no ransom had been paid for the minister’s release.

For the last five years, Puntland – the north-eastern Somali region that declared itself autonomous in 1998 – has been the hub of Somali piracy operations, particularly in the Gulf of Aden.

Last month, a pirate ringleader was sentenced to death for killing the Pakistani skipper of a hijacked cargo ship.

About half of Puntland’s prison population is made up of pirates.

Somalia has not had an effective central government for more than 19 years and is plagued by insecurity.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Mexican police commander killed

Tiffany Hartley (c) lays a wreath near the site where her husband was shot last month on Falcon Lake in Zapata, Texas (file image from Oct 6 2010)The body of Tiffany Hartley’s husband, David, has yet to be found

A Mexican police chief investigating the disappearance of a US man on a lake bordering Mexico earlier this month has been found dead.

Commander Rolando Flores was working on the case of tourist David Hartley, whose wife reported that he had been shot by pirates on Falcon Lake.

Texas Governor Rick Perry said Mr Flores’ death was a message from a gang to “stay out of their territory”.

However, Mexican officials have said Mr Flores was working on multiple cases.

Mr Perry told the Associated Press news agency that he though the killing was an “attempt is to intimidate law enforcement, not matter who they are or where they are”.

According to Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez, the head of the decapitated police commander was found on Tuesday in a suitcase outside a Mexican army base, AP reports.

Mr Hartley’s wife, Tiffany, said she and her husband were crossing the lake on jet skis when they were attacked and shot at by pirates from a speedboat.

Her husband was shot and fell into the water and she was forced to flee as the men continued to fire, she added.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Squeeeeaaak

Lime being squeezedSqueezy does it – families are facing a six per cent cut on average

The child benefit cut, saving for an evaporating pension while paying for parents in long-term care, not to mention helping the children pay for university. Is this the end of being comfortably off, asks Michael Blastland in his regular column.

Put it this way: every £1bn is the equivalent of taking away services or money worth £1,000 from one million people, every year.

Michael Blastland

“Do you cut your standard of living or dip into the house that you hoped would bolster your pension?”

Michael Blastland

Which one million people would you have in mind?

And that’s just the first billion. There are another 84-ish to go. Which is why the politics of cuts grows nasty. The Chancellor says we are all in it together, invoking a sense of collective sacrifice. Your country needs you, says David Cameron, pointing our way.

But I see no volunteers. Instead, the one collective effort on view is to duck – and point elsewhere. The “middle” points at the “scroungers” at the “bottom”. The “bottom” points to the broader shoulders higher up. Both point to the “top”. And the “top” says it pays for everything already and should get something back.

Well, it could be worse. Actually, it will be worse. There are bills not yet fully in the equation, like that for long-term care as the population ages.

Everyone points out that life is expensive enough already. If you are in the middle or perhaps above, do you save for the children’s university fees, or your mother’s long-term care, or maybe your own? If you lose universal benefits, like child benefit – worth £1,750 a year for two children – that adds up over 18 years to about another £35,000 gone.

Do you cut your standard of living or dip into the house that you hoped would bolster your pension, a pension that might be looking less healthy than it once did.

The squeeze seems to come from every side. Where will the money come from?

Meanwhile, many look over their shoulders at those who, by some anomaly, manage to escape the cut in child benefit despite being well off, for example. It is as if we’re all in the workhouse, green eyed, comparing portions.

At the root, though, is a simple problem: arithmetic. Eliminating what’s known as the structural deficit in the next few years, as the government aims to do, requires cuts or tax rises worth about 12% of total government spending in today’s terms, though some departmental budgets will be hit harder than others. Twelve per cent of government spending is equal to about six per cent of national spending (see box, below, for explanation).

It sounds manageable, until you remember that spread in equal proportion across the population, six per cent – for someone on £40,000 – is the equivalent of lost money or services worth nearly £2,400 every year.

Why 12% of govt spending is 6% of national spendingIf the whole country produces £100 of goods and services……and the government takes about 50% in taxes to spendSo, a 12% cut in government spending equals six per cent, or £6Spread that £6 (six per cent) across every equally to feel the pain

In that context, an extra £3 – 4,000 for university fees, for typically just three years, is only a beginning, while the idea that most of this could be found from efficiency seems to have evaporated faster than the sweat of the general election.

There’s a well-known saying: “a billion here, a billion there and pretty soon it adds up to real money”.

Let me to adapt it to the national finances: “a billion here, a billion there and still it adds up to not nearly enough”.

Are there any calculations that offer grounds for optimism? Here’s one. Economic growth of 2.5% – roughly the long-term trend – equals about £36bn in one year. About 28 months of that – remember that we’re looking for about £85bn – and the economy is richer to the tune of everything we’re about to lose. So growth is – potentially – big money.

With caveats: some economic growth – or rather the increased tax receipts that it yields – has already been factored into the calculation about closing the deficit in this Parliament. It will take a few years until growth repairs our sense of prosperity.

And some think that the prospects for growth are permanently damaged, as if the recession changed the game; others that the recession is a normal part of the game and that too many people are in the bad habit of extrapolating into the future from bad years, just as they once extrapolated from the good.

So there are three possible – and perhaps obvious – answers to the question: “where will the money come from?”

Spending review branding

A special BBC News season examining the approaching cuts to public sector spending

The Spending Review: Making It Clear

Either it won’t, and there’ll be lower standards of living for everyoneIt will come from a decline in services people receiveIt will come by waiting, and hoping for increased national prosperity in the future will give us back what we’ve now lost, and we will all share in itSorry, did I not mention a fourth option? Option four is the most likely – a scenario which combines options one, two and three

A few months ago, I interviewed Howard Glennerster, a professor of social policy, who said that the numbers were unachievable unless the government also took aim at the middle classes.

He predicted precisely the current confrontation: “The challenge is to threaten the interests of the median middle class voter on whom the Conservative party and the Liberal Democrats depend. Only by challenging their core vote, it seems to me, can they deliver.”

At no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws. In most cases a selection of your comments will be published, displaying your name as you provide it and location unless you state otherwise. But your contact details will never be published.

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Cowboy lessons

Cowboy soldierLance Corporal Hare with Playgirl

A Stetson, chaps and cowboy boots aren’t the usual uniform for a soldier, but they’re what Lance Corporal Jay Hare from 45 Commando Royal Marines wears to work these days.

An experienced soldier with three tours of Afghanistan, Jay has spent the last four months learning how to ride and look after horses on a farm in the rolling Aberdeenshire countryside.

It is part of the 29 year old’s rehabilitation after being severely injured nearly two years ago when he stepped on an Improvised Explosive Device in the Sangin Valley.

He said: “I’m just learning to adapt to the world with a prosthetic leg. I lost my left leg below the knee, digits to my right hand and my left eye.”

Jay spent five weeks in hospital, and then went to Headley Court, the military rehabilitation centre in Surrey.

“I went in there in a wheelchair, and walked out, with the basics of learning how to run,” he said.

Now Jay is preparing for life outside the military, with the help of the charity Horseback UK. It specialises in Western Riding – the technique used by cowboys.

The theory is that the patience required to work with the horses, and the peace of the farm, will help heal mental and physical scars.

Co-founder Jock Hutchison grew up around horses and is also a former Marine.

“I always thought there was a synergy between the two,” he explained, “The team work and bonding that happens in both worlds are similar, so that’s what gave me the idea.

Cowboy soldier

“Many of the guys who come home are lacking a limb or two, and the horse provides the mobility to get them back up on the hills. Most of us joined up because we wanted to be outside, and the horse gets you there.”

Rather than focus on their disability, the injured soldiers build up confidence and physical strength while learning new outdoor skills. It’s hoped these will come in useful when they eventually leave the military.

“These guys are young men – most of them are more able bodied than people with four limbs. If you get the guys directly involved, helping themselves, they’re from a world where solving problems and doing the impossible is fairly normal.”

As he saddles up Playgirl, one of the 20 American Quarter horses on the farm, Jay Hare looks as if he’s been working with the animals for years, rather than just a few months.

“I can see the benefits of being on a horse. You have to be calm around a horse [and] you’re able to enjoy the outdoors again and try something you’ve never tried before.”

The plan for the charity’s immediate future is to start a full working farm, so the newly trained cowboys can herd cattle properly.

Long term, they hope veterans who recover there will help set up other rehabilitation centres – run by soldiers for soldiers.

Jay Hare is hoping he can work there permanently when he gets a medical discharge, and is already helping others who arrive with similar injuries to his own.

“The first couple of days, you see a change in the lads. By the end of the course they’re all laughing and smiling, and it makes it all worthwhile,” he said.

“Life does go on, you just adapt to it and love it.”

To find out more about Horseback UK, you can listen to Laura Maxwell’s interview with its co-founder Jock Hutchinson on BBC Radio 5 live Gabby Logan on Wednesday, 13 October between 1300-1400 BST.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Thatcher celebrates 85th birthday

Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher’s career highlights

Former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher is celebrating her 85th birthday.

The ex-Conservative leader is expected to attend a reception in her honour at No 10 Downing Street on Thursday.

Press reports have suggested that about 150 serving and former ministers will be present at the event.

David Cameron paid tribute to Baroness Thatcher in his recent party conference speech, describing her as the “greatest peacetime” prime minister of the 20th Century.

Baroness Thatcher last visited No 10 in June when Mr Cameron hosted a reception in her honour.

At the end of 2009, during Gordon Brown’s premiership, she was invited to No 10 for the unveiling of a new portrait of her.

Baroness Thatcher, who was prime minister between 1979 and 1990, was advised to give up public speaking in 2005 on health grounds after some minor strokes.

However, she has continued to take part in public engagements – most recently attending an address given by the Pope during his state visit to the UK.

According to The Independent, guests at Thursday’s reception will include former chancellor Lord Howe, former foreign secretary Lord Carrington and Sir Bernard Ingham, Baroness Thatcher’s former press spokesman.

The newspaper reported that Lord Heseltine, whose challenge to Baroness Thatcher’s leadership in 1990 led to her resignation, is not on the list of invitees.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Porn studios close over HIV scare

Front of a porn shopIt is not the first time the industry has been affected by HIV

An actor’s positive HIV test has caused two of the US adult film industry’s largest studios to postpone filming.

Wicked Pictures and Vivid Entertainment told The Los Angeles Times that production had stopped as a precaution.

The unnamed actor was a member of the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation.

Clinic spokeswoman Jennifer Miller said efforts were being made to notify other performers who may have had sexual contact with the actor.

Related stories

This is not the first time the billion dollar industry has faced closures.

In 2004, an HIV outbreak spread panic in the industry and briefly shut down productions at several California studios.

Up to 14 people were believed to have been infected during on-camera sex with a male actor.

Last year, a woman tested positive for HIV immediately after making an adult film.

Complaints

Officials in Los Angeles have criticised the pornographic film industry for the lack of condom use on porn sets.

According to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, workers in the adult film industry are 10 times more likely to be infected with a sexually-transmitted infection than members of the general public.

In August, the Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF) submitted an official complaint in California against adult entertainment mogul Larry Flynt.

At the time Mr Flynt said he delivered “what the consumer wants”.

Federal law requires that all porn actors are tested for HIV 30 days before the start of filming.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Iran Guards base blast kills 18

bbc map

An explosion at a base belonging to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has killed 18 people and injured 14.

Reports are emerging of the blast at an ammunitions store on Tuesday in north-western Lorestan province.

The injured were taken to Khoramabad, 300 miles (500 km) southwest of Tehran.

An elite military force, the Revolutionary Guard was set up shortly after the 1979 Iranian revolution to defend the country’s Islamic system.

It has since become a major military, political and economic force in Iran.

The north west of Iran has seen several attacks in recent months by Kurdish militants against the Iranian military.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Two million US PCs hijacked

Escape key on keyboardHi-tech criminals use botnets to send out spam

The US leads the world in numbers of Windows PCs that are part of botnets, reveals a report.

More than 2.2 million US PCs were found to be part of botnets, networks of hijacked home computers, in the first six months of 2010, it said.

Compiled by Microsoft, the research revealed that Brazil had the second highest level of infections at 550,000.

Infections were highest in South Korea where 14.6 out of every 1000 machines were found to be enrolled in botnets.

The 240-page Microsoft report took an in-depth look at botnets which, said Cliff Evans, head of security and identity at Microsoft UK, now sat at the centre of many cybercrime operations.

The research was undertaken, he said, to alert people to the growing danger from the malicious networks.

Malicious herder

Related stories

“Most people have this idea of a virus and how it used to announce itself,” he said. “Few people know about botnets.”

Hi-tech criminals use botnets to send out spam, phishing e-mails and launch attacks on websites. Owners of botnets also scour infected machines for information that can be sold on the underground auction sites and markets found online.

Botnets start when a virus infects a computer, either through spam or an infected web page. The virus puts the Windows machine under the control of a botnet herder.

“Once they have control of the machine they have the potential to put any kind of malicious code on there,” said Mr Evans. “It becomes a distributed computing resource they then sell on to others.”

Some, he said, were being worked very hard by their owners.

“With the significant number of holes identified on the same day, businesses will be racing against time to fix them all,”

Alan Bentley senior vice-president, Lumension

Microsoft’s research revealed that a botnet called Lethic sent out 56% of all botnet spam sent between March and June even though it was only on 8.3% of all known botnet IP addresses.

“It’s phenomenal the amount of grip that thing has,” said Mr Evans.

Evidence of how botnets were growing, he said, could be found in the number of infected machines Microsoft was freeing from the clutches of botnets.

In the three months between April and June 2010, Microsoft cleaned up more than 6.5 million infections, he said, which is twice as much as the same period in 2009.

The statistics in the report were gathered from the 600 million machines that are enrolled in Microsoft’s various update services or use its Essentials and Defender security packages.

Despite the large number of people being caught out, Mr Evans said that defending against malware was straightforward.

He said people should sign up for automatic updates, make sure the applications they use are regularly patched, use anti-virus software and run a firewall.

Microsoft has just issued its largest ever list of fixes for flaws in Windows, Internet Explorer and a range of other software.

This month’s update issued patches for 49 vulnerabilities, including one that plugs a hole exploited by Stuxnet, the first-known worm designed to target real-world infrastructure such as power stations, water plants and industrial units.

“With the significant number of holes identified on the same day, businesses will be racing against time to fix them all,” said Alan Bentley, senior vice president at security firm Lumension.

“Not only is this Microsoft’s largest patch load on record, but 23 of the vulnerabilities are rated at the most severe level,” he added.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

New nose for Taliban victim Aisha

AsiaAisha’s new nose is a rare Afghan good news story

The Afghan girl featured on a controversial Time magazine cover in the US has been given a new prosthetic nose.

Aisha told Time her nose and ears had been cut off – with the approval of a Taliban commander – by her abusive husband as punishment for running away.

The front cover generated debate over the headline “What Happens if We Leave Afghanistan” and over the use of the photo itself.

Her surgery was done in California.

The Grossman Burn Foundation, which carried out the work, campaigns on the issue of violence against women, as well as doing free plastic surgery work.

Foundation surgeon Peter Grossman carried out the reconstruction surgery.

Aisha was widely photographed and filmed earlier this week receiving the Enduring Heart award at a benefit ceremony staged by the foundation.

She was given the award by California first lady Maria Shriver, the wife of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Time magazine Aisha coverThe cover generated much discussion in the US

“This is the first Enduring Heart award given to a woman whose heart endures and who shows us all what it means to have love and to be the enduring heart,” Ms Shriver said.

Aisha – whose surname has not been revealed – replied: “Thank you so much.”

The 18-year-old was reportedly given away by her family in childhood as a “blood debt” and was subsequently married to a Taliban fighter.

His family abused her and she ran away but was recaptured and mutilated by her husband.

Aisha’s case has been used in the West to illustrate the fear of what will happen if US, British and other international forces leave prematurely.

Some critics questioned the tone of the Time cover arguing that it was using emotional blackmail and gender politics to justify continued US involvement in Afghanistan.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Nigerian mogul sues secret police

Gen Ibrahim BabangidaRaymond Dokpesi and his candidate, Gen Babangida, are already out campaigning

Nigerian media mogul Raymond Dokpesi has lodged a lawsuit against the secret police over his arrest in connection with the Independence Day Abuja bombings.

Mr Dokpesi, election campaign chief to a rival of the president in elections due next year, wants 100m naira ($660,000; £410,000) in damages.

He was one of nine people arrested in Nigeria over the twin car-bombings which killed at least 12 people.

He says the arrest was “malicious”.

Mr Dokpesi owns the Africa Independent Television network, one of Nigeria’s biggest, and is running the campaign of former military ruler Gen Ibrahim Babangida.

Gen Babangida is challenging President Goodluck Jonathan for the right to become Nigeria’s governing party’s presidential candidate.

On Monday, another candidate for the People’s Democratic Party nomination – the former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar – called for an international inquiry into the 1 October bombings to ensure the investigations were not manipulated for political reasons.

Mend oil militants

Map of Nigeria

Formed out of previous militant groups in 2006Send regular e-mails to mediaSplit into several factionsMost leaders accepted amnesty1 October attack first in AbujaBased in creeks of Niger DeltaWant oil wealth to remain in Delta

When Mr Dokpesi was arrested, officials said he had exchanged text messages with the alleged mastermind of the bombing, Henry Okah, who has been charged with terrorism offences in South Africa, where he is based.

Mr Okah is a former leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), which is fighting for more control of Nigeria’s oil wealth for residents of the oil-producing Delta region.

He has denied any links to the blasts, but an e-mail purportedly sent by Mend said it had carried out the attacks.

If confirmed, this would be the first time Nigeria’s oil militants have struck in the capital.

Mr Okah is believed to lead a militant Mend faction opposed to a government amnesty.

Most Mend commanders have joined the amnesty, set up to end years of unrest in the region which cut Nigeria’s oil output by up to 20%.

While Mend says it is a political group, many criminal gangs also operate in the region, stealing oil and kidnapping people for ransom.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

India beat Aussies to win series

Debutant Cheteshwar Pujara strikes a confident 72 as India ease to a seven-wicket win over Australia in Bangalore to complete a 2-0 series victory.

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