Once again, the annual rendez-vous with the UK's green and ethical lifestyle show is at Olympia Two in London this weekend. To get FREE tickets follow this link and type the discount code TRADE2010.

VIP Tickets including the networking evening are £30.

The activists/comedians of the renowed NGO have blown Nestle's attempts to green the brand by launching a campaign against the sourcing of palm oil from tropical rainforests.

Several months ago Nestle announced the Fairtrade Kit Kat, so it must have felt like a kick in the gut to now be blamed for the killing of orangutans and the depletion of rainforests.

Here is the Greenpeace video:

The office of the Mayor launched this week the strategy for climate change adaptation. It is an online consultation initiative - you can give your ideas and have your say: www.london.gov.uk/climatechange

To watch the launch video clip click below

Earlier this month the government announced a £100bn plan to boost wind power to an unprecedented scale. The Crown Estate confirmed the latest round of
leasing of UK waters for offshore farms, which will add 25 GW of electricity generation (to the existing 8GW); this will be enough to power every household in the UK.

Additional plans for offshore wind farms in Scotland could bring the total capacity to about 40GW.

This is all very impressive. Construction is planned to begin 2013-2015. I was at parliamentary seminar on energy policy earlier this week where the shadow
minister for Energy Charles Hendry rightly commented on these plans en passant "we have a shortage of ships, skills, engineers, manufacturing capacity, and absolutely
no money, but other than that everything is going fine". It's a typical "Yes Minister" moment, and probably spot on, but there're reasons to be optimistic.

There is a huge challenge in delivering the necessary volume to build these offshore farms and the cost involved, especially at a time when Britain is
risking a rating downgrade and needs to keep a lid on printing money, but I have no doubt that we will rise to the challenge. It also beside the point
that in all likelihood all this technology will be sourced from abroad.

The concerns about the unreliability of windpower are unjustified. If there's wind for a net 50% of the time during the year, and we need to resort to burning coal and gas for the
remainder to make up for the shortfall, that is a 50% cut in emissions already. There is no objective need to expect that any one renewable source will produce electricity
at a continuous level 24/7. The key is to diversify the energy mix and securing that the main elements of the mix delivering the lion's share of the demand are low carbon.

The same applies at a micro-generation or household level. Solar panels can be a great investment because the excess production can be sold to the National
Grid. The limited number of hours of daylight means that a household needs to buy back from the grid part of the time. However the net balance
is that an average set up with an initial outlay of £30000  can bring dividends of about 5-7% p.a. by selling the electricity, which is more than one would get from
putting the money in a savings account, plus there's the added advantage that the household becomes a carbon negative contributor to reducing emissions.

This is far from a trivial point. Micro-generation and energy efficiency can play a crucial role in decreasing demand that would otherwise spiral out of control.  

Mikel Susperregi