Practical Action

Climate change: Talking about the elephant in the room

AndyBrace — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 19:49:23 +0100

Here in Bonn at the UNFCCC talks there has overall been rather little going on – not many arguments between governments, yet not a lot of progress on agreeing a text for negotiation, and no sense of urgency. So I went for a change of scene to Klimaforum, organised by Friends of the Earth Germany, [...]

Two steps forward, one step back towards a climate agreement?

AndyBrace — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 16:59:12 +0100

I am in Bonn for the first substantive meeting for climate change negotiations since the debacle in Copenhagen. We are back in the gloomy and grandiose Maritim hotel where the conference takes place and yesterday felt very much like Groundhog day – so much of what was being said both by us NGOs and delegates [...]

Europe needs to step up on climate change!

AndyBrace — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:44:48 +0100

The European climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard did her best yesterday with the Commission to show that European business and national interests would benefit from Europe setting a target of -30% reductions in emissions. The additional investment costs would only be an additional €11bn a year – with long term benefits in terms of leading on [...]

Climate change – what climate change?

AndyBrace — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 15:53:50 +0100

For many of us in the UK climate change is a bit of an abstract concept. We know it’s going on but we can put out heads in the sand, pretend it’s just not happening and just get on with our day to day lives.
The people of Nepal don’t have that luxury. For them climate [...]

Dying from climate change

AndyBrace — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 21:54:54 +0000

People living in the Andes mountains of Bolivia are among the lowest contributors to climate change and yet they are suffering some of the most severe effects. Instead of blaming others they are learning to adapt to the changes in their environment through the help of Practical Action.

How can the poor benefit from solar power?

AndyBrace — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 16:13:27 +0000

To ensure the benefits of solar power are felt by the rural poor in remote communities at least two things need to happen. The technology needs to be more efficient and cheaper but also more innovation needs to be applied to the business models that favour decentralised, off-grid, small solar systems over centralised, fossil fuel-based solutions.
Beyond [...]

Students voice their opinion on climate change

AndyBrace — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:05:50 +0000

Do young people care about climate change or even know what it is?
Some people are concerned that they don’t but that wasn’t what I experienced at the Big Bang Fair in Manchester today. Thousands of school children from all over the country attended the first day of the event and many took part in the Science [...]

Energy in developing countries

AndyBrace — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:02:18 +0000

My first trip away with Practical Action, to East Africa, has been with a focus on our energy work, and it’s already been quite an eye-opener to the challenges and opportunities for our organisation in the region. Practical Action is aiming to develop energy sources that can meet the needs of the very poor, while being [...]

Influencing government policies on climate change adaptation

AndyBrace — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:57:43 +0000

This is the fifth full day of the conference on Community Based Adaptation in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, and my head is full of the experiences that people have presented, and of the plans people have developed in small groups meeting late at night or over breakfast for working together on particular topics. I [...]

Taking a lead on energy for poverty reduction

AndyBrace — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 10:45:28 +0000

I want to talk about the Prince of Wales and how great he is for taking a lead on issues – ones that are often unpopular and sometimes old fashioned.
In my mind he championed good architecture when badly designed concrete was seen as a modern ideal, he encouraged us to take a wider view of [...]

Living without energy?

AndyBrace — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 11:49:31 +0000

As I was slowly waking up, reading the Guardian yesterday morning, waiting for the kettle to boil and the toaster to pop, suddenly the lights flickered and went out. “Damn, another power cut” I thought, “not to worry, it’ll come on again in a minute.” We live at the far end of the energy distribution [...]

Climate change diaries: Zimbabwe

AndyBrace — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:20:46 +0100

Hello, I am Lasten Mika.
You may have heard a lot about Zimbabwe in the media in recent years, yet an often unreported side of life here is the changes that are taking place in our climate.
Did you know that in the last twenty years, we have been hit with the extremes of weather? And [...]

Can new technologies help reduce the impact of climate change?

AndyBrace — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:00:13 +0100

A day after climate change talks ended in deadlock in Bangkok one of the richest men in the world, George Soros pledged US$1 billion as an investment in clean energy technology. Will this make a difference in terms of reducing carbon emissions? Yes, probably…But a further question is: Will the clean energy technology be adopted [...]

Climate change diaries: Kenya

AndyBrace — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:35:01 +0100

Hello, my name is George Kamau. In my country, Kenya, Maasai’s herdsmen and agro-pastoralists are being displaced and loosing their traditional livelihoods as global warming destroys their rangelands. It is important to realise that the damage caused by climate change is not a distant concern in Kenya – it is here now and will be [...]

Are plastic solar cells going to be important?

AndyBrace — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 05:24:30 +0000

Researchers at Canada’s National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT) and the University of Alberta have developed an approach that could lead to improved performance of plastic solar cells (hybrid organic solar cells). Conventional solar cells require materials that are expensive or in short supply, such as silicon, thus there is a great interest in the development [...]

To BEE solar powered or not to BEE

AndyBrace — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:12:18 +0100

Today the drums are beating about BEE and worker BEE a newly developed solar powered communications hub/system. BEE has been “developed by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in conjunction with their partners, to provide connectivity, information, and opportunity to people and communities in remote or emergency situations”. Queen BEE and Worker BEE come in [...]