Archive for the ‘WWF’ Category

WWF UK is asking the new Conservative government and the national water companies to ensure water metering is in place in the next 10 years to help the UK’s water crisis. Meters are a very important part of water regulating as levels continue to drop around the country. This summer’s dry weather has seen many water shortages in the south and east of England, and now is the time for the UK government to insist water companies install compulsory meters for customers who live in ‘water scarce’ areas.

Freshwater Policy Officer at WWF UK, Rose Timlett, said -

Not only is the current water charging system unfair and outdated, it is also piling huge pressure on our rivers and their wildlife. One third of our river catchments are facing damage because we are simply taking too much water out of them, a problem that is set to get worse with climate change and a rising population. With the current water shortages across the country, water companies and the Government should be doing all they can to help more households install a water meter.

After last year’s government review into metering and charging, it was strongly recommended that up to 80% of UK homes should be metering by 2020. Yet with only 37% of households currently metered, it is going to take a strong initiative to reach the proposed targets. The 5 year plan being bandied around shows that 50% will be ready by 2015, only half of what is required.

Rose Timlett continued -

The UK remains one of the only European countries where the majority of households do not pay for water on the basis of what they use. We pay for most things by what we use, as it seems the fairest way, so it is ludicrous that most households have no idea how much water they are using and how much water – and money- they could potentially be saving. Universal metering will lead to better awareness and understanding of water use by the householder, but also better understanding of water demand by the water companies and more innovative demand reduction schemes.

Help WWF UK with a Charity Gift

The WWF is a non profit organisation who can only sustain their tireless work in saving the planet and its inhabitants through donations. You can help raise funds through the WWF Adopt an Animal scheme.

From as little as £3 a month you receive a certificate, a print of your animal, a greetings card, and a soft toy that would make a fantastic charity gift for a loved one.

> > Click here to Adopt an Animal with WWF UK

View other top charity gifts

WWF UK are looking for two animal lovers aged between 18-22 to joy the trip of a lifetime to Russia for the Tiger Youth Summit on 12-19th September 2010. Two lucky winners will be flown alongside WWF representatives to visit the Youth Summit and help spread the word about the animal charities tiger conservation work. With only 3,200 tigers left in the wild, now is the time for world leaders to discuss the possibility of doubling the world’s tiger numbers by 2022 at a meeting in St Petersburgh in September.

Whilst this meeting is taking place the Youth Tiger Summit will be in Vladivostok in the Russian Far East. Along with visiting the summit, the two winners will get to chance to visit actual tiger habitats, learning about the threats they face in the ever changing world. Whilst they are studying the tigers living area, the two lucky winners will also get a chance to see what the WWF are also doing to protect the species from extinction.

To apply simply click on the link below before 9am on Wednesday 21st July 2010 to have a chance to take part. Good luck!

> > Click here to apply for WWF Tiger Youth Summit

Adopt a Tiger with WWF UK

WWF is a non profit organisation who can only sustain their tireless work in saving the planet and its inhabitants through donations. You can help raise funds through the WWF Adopt an Tiger scheme.

From as little as £3 a month you receive a certificate, a print of your tiger, a greetings card, and a soft tiger toy that would make a fantastic charity gift for a loved one.

> > Click here to Adopt an Tiger with WWF UK

View other top charity gifts

WWF charity research has shown that North Sea Cod is not out of danger yet, even though there has been a marginal improvement in their number. WWF scientists feel that the poor management of stocks threatens to undermine the number of cod in the area, and lead to a dramatic halt in the replenishment.

The International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) has recommended that a 20% reduction in the fishing quota will help restore fish stocks to a level that will sustain a healthy industry. The European Commission will also need to follow this advice to attain a sustainable catch level for all E.U. fish stocks by 2015.

Fisheries Policy Officer at WWF Scotland, Louize Hill, said -

Although a recovery plan is in place for cod stocks, conservation measures are not being effectively implemented or enforced across the whole fishery, and the problem of discards continue to blight any signs of improvement. The recent signs of recovery in the North Sea must be capitalised upon. Discard reduction measures must be mandatory for the catching sector, and long-term management plans that are fishery-wide must be enforced in the upcoming reform of the EU Common Fisheries Policy.

The Scottish Conservation Credits Scheme is definitely on the right track and this kind of strong co-operation between the fishing industry, governments and conservation groups on protecting stocks needs to be firmly built into the way the reformed Common Fisheries Policy works in future.

Though numbers are definitely increasing, there is not yet enough North Sea Cod to maintain a healthy stock level. The planned EU cod recovery target cannot be achieved unless catches are reduced significantly. One of the major issues is the discards that are thrown back into the sea, and these account for up to a staggering 50% of all caught between 2007-09. A large majority of the Cod ‘bycatch’ is often caught by fishermen who are trawling for other fish stocks.

WWF officials are now calling for all vessels to fully document all of their catch, no matter what the species. This can be monitored by by using onboard cameras and catch quotas that will limit the amount of fish removed from the sea instead of recording just what is landed. Already in use across Scotland, England and Denmark, this approach could lead to a marked reduction in discards across the EU if other countries use the new technology available to help the North Sea Cod stock to replenish.

Help WWF UK with a Charity Gift

The WWF is a non profit organisation who can only sustain their tireless work in saving the planet and its inhabitants through donations. You can help raise funds through the WWF Adopt an Animal scheme.

From as little as £3 a month you receive a certificate, a print of your animal, a greetings card, and a soft toy that would make a fantastic charity gift for a loved one.

> > Click here to Adopt an Animal with WWF UK

View other top charity gifts

The town of Swindon is bidding to become the countries most water efficient area. The Save Water Swindon campaign has been launched in conjunction with WWF UK, Waterwise and Thames Water to help ease pressures on the natural environment whilst also helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The plan is for Swindon to be used as an example to the rest of the country as they prepare to reduce their water use. Residents of the Wiltshire town will be supported in their efforts to save water for the next 12 months by the Environment Agency who have deemed the area seriously water stressed.

The average person in Swindon uses 164 litres per person per day, which is approximately 16 litres more per person than the national average. The Government’s target is for people to use 130 litres per day, which is made worse in Swindon as the area has a high population density and water is scarcer than anywhere else in England and Wales.  The Save Water Swindon campaign estimates that by saving 20 litres of water a day, the average home can reduce not only their energy bills by £100 a year, but also their greenhouse gas emissions.

WWF Ambassador and presenter of Grand Designs, Kevin McCloud said -

Save Water Swindon is an ambitious campaign that will set a precedent for how large-scale water efficiency in existing homes can be achieved – with benefits for homeowners and the environment. As we continue moving towards a more holistic sustainable lifestyle, both in our homes and the way we live, water efficiency will play a significant role. Not only will reducing demand for water help reduce the amount we need to take from the environment it can also reduce greenhouse gases and as a result our home energy and water bills.

With up to 6% of the UK’s greenhouse gases resulting from water prep and distribution alone, now is a great time to make a change. To help Swindon reduce its water use, house owners can register online below for a free water saving makeover or have a trained fitter visit their home. Once inside he can give a house a free water audit and then advise on the best water saving products and install them – all for free!

> > Sign up for free water saving makeover

Freshwater Policy and Programme Officer at WWF-UK, Rose Timlett, said -

All the water we use at home comes from the natural environment. People tend not to realise that when they turn on the tap or flush the loo the water could be coming from the local river and when we use too much it’s bad news for the animals and plants that live there. With water use on the up, a growing population and the threat of climate change it’s vital that we all take steps now to reduce the amount of water that’s wasted and help protect some of our most special native species, like the otter, water vole and brown trout. Reducing the amount of water we use is something we can all achieve with minimal effort. We hope that other villages, towns, and cities will follow Swindon’s lead.

Help WWF UK with a Charity Gift

The WWF is a non profit organisation who can only sustain their tireless work in saving the planet and its inhabitants through donations. You can help raise funds through the WWF Adopt an Animal scheme.

From as little as £3 a month you receive a certificate, a print of your animal, a greetings card, and a soft toy that would make a fantastic charity gift for a loved one.

> > Click here to Adopt an Animal with WWF UK

View other top charity gifts

WWF charity officials will be launching a new set of reports on new guidelines for the protection of a new, warmer Arctic. The International Governance and Regulation of the Marine Arctic reports were launched in Denmark to coincide with the visit of Russian president Medvedev and show that new plans need to be put into place for this highly vulnerable environment. As the region is no longer completely ice covered, the area is more susceptible to fishing and shipping, which in turn will have a profound effect on its natural habitat and resources.

Executive conservation director for WWF-International, Lasse Gustavsson, said -

The melting of the Arctic ice is opening a new ocean, bringing new possibilities for commercial activities in a part of the world that has previously been inaccessible. What happens in the Arctic has a global environmental and economic impact. For instance, more than a quarter of the fish eaten in Europe comes from the region, and yet we do not have effective rules for fishing in newly accessible areas.

With the Arctic possibly becoming ice free within decades, commercial ships will be looking to sail the Northern Sea Route above Siberia. This in turn will see more oil and gas exploration where once there was none, with the major possibility of spills in this highly susceptible environment. Due to a lack of clean up rules and infrastructure, this could have a devastating effect not just on the region, but also cause repercussions across the world.

WWF officials will be looking into the legal side of how the possible rapid change could allow irreparable damage to the marine environment. If resource extraction is to take place it needs to be within sustainable limits, as currently it is unclear what these boundaries are. This in turn will help to prevent overfishing and stop pollution accidents and shipping disasters. A new, legally binding Arctic framework will need to be put into place to help ensure the future protection of this delicately balanced region.

Director of Campaigns at WWF-UK, David Norman, said -

It’s time to recognise that the current international rules just can’t cope with the complex challenges of the Arctic region. The ice has protected the Arctic Ocean for hundreds of years; we have collectively removed that protection though our contributions to climate change, and now we must work together to manage the new risks we have created.

Help WWF UK with a Charity Gift

The WWF is a non profit organisation who can only sustain their tireless work in saving the planet and its inhabitants through donations. You can help raise funds through the WWF Adopt an Animal scheme.

From as little as £3 a month you receive a certificate, a print of your animal, a greetings card, and a soft toy that would make a fantastic charity gift for a loved one.

> > Click here to Adopt an Animal with WWF UK

View other top charity gifts

WWF UK has shortlisted their final 3 short films for their fantastic Earth Hour, and your vote can help decide the top prize-winner. That’s right, decision time is finally here for the 3 aspiring film makers whose one minute Earth Hour videos have made it this far. Simply click on the link below to check out the finalists and vote, it will only take you a couple of minutes and all 3 shorts a pretty cool. After you’ve chosen your favourite why not tell a few of your friends to vote too!

> > Click here to watch the 3 Earth Hour finalists and videos

The films are fun and inspiring, and your vote could be the deciding factor in who wins the whole competition. Earth Hour commences across the globe on Saturday 27th March 2010 at 8.30pm, when millions of people across the globe will be turning their lights off for one hour in a show of global unity in the call for action against climate change.

So why not get involved by checking out and voting for the videos and turn your lights off at 8.30pm this Saturday, and join millions of other people across the world who want the climate change issues to be resolved as quickly as possible.

Help WWF UK with a Charity Gift

The WWF is a non profit organisation who can only sustain their tireless work in saving the planet and its inhabitants through donations. You can help raise funds through the WWF Adopt an Animal scheme.

From as little as £3 a month you receive a certificate, a print of your animal, a greetings card, and a soft toy that would make a fantastic charity gift for a loved one.

> > Click here to Adopt an Animal with WWF UK

View other top charity gifts

The WWF shop is giving away a free Cheeky Monkey Mug worth £5.99 to all customers who spend over £30 on online gifts. With Easter just around the corner, now is a great time to purchase an interesting and innovative charity gift for a loved one, and there’s a wide range to choose from to please even the most difficult of aunties! Choose from -

• Chocolate, food and wine
• Plush, Toys and Games
• Greetings / Stationery
• Fashion
• Home, Living, Garden and Pets

With Spring due any time now (allegedly!), why not take advantage of the birds that will be inhabiting your garden and keep them happy with discounted bird seed, roosting and nesting homes. Or maybe a green fingered friend would enjoy a hand trowel or a potting shed collection.

So why not treat a loved one to something different this Easter with a charity gift from the WWF online shop, not only will you be providing interesting gifts for your friends and family, but also the funds to help support the WWF’s work throughout the UK and world wide.

> > Click here to order online from WWF shop

Other great charity gifts

WWF UK is pleased to hear the news that the British government has confirmed that they will be providing millions of pounds in funding for the next stage of the UK’s carbon capture and storage (CCS) competition. The two remaining entries, Scottish Power and E.On, will be receiving huge financial backing for their detailed engineering studies, with Scottish Power’s taking place at their existing coal plant at Longannet in Fife.

These studies will hopefully lead to an immediate net reduction in CO2 emissions from the power sector if it goes ahead. The E.On project would involve the building of a new coal plant at Kingsnorth in Kent if it succeeded, risking the possibility of a new lease of life to this already controversial proposal. The Government is putting through a legislation in the Energy Bill that would enable around £9.5 billion to be raised over a period of 20 years for 4 carbon capture demonstrations, with the money being raised via a levy on consumer electricity bills. The Energy Bill will have its Second Reading in the House of Lords on Tuesday 23rd March 2010.

Dr Keith Allott, head of climate change at WWF-UK said

Moves to demonstrate carbon capture and storage are welcome but it is essential that this technology is tested in a way that benefits the climate from the outset and does not lock the UK into new indefinitely polluting coal plants. Opting now for Longannet would enable the UK to gain experience on the ground relatively quickly and will actually reduce emissions from day one. It is therefore concerning that the Government continues to flirt with a new plant at Kingsnorth that wouldn’t be up and running until 2016 or later and even then, would have 80% of its emissions going to the atmosphere.

It will be a sorely missed opportunity if the Government doesn’t use the Energy Bill to put in place a CO2 emission performance standard that would set robust limits on emissions from power plant. The Government is planning to spend billions of pounds of consumer’s money on demonstrating CCS, an as yet commercially ‘unproven’ technology so it is only reasonable to expect guarantees that the climate will benefit.

Help WWF UK with a Charity Gift

The WWF is a non profit organisation who can only sustain their tireless work in saving the planet and its inhabitants through donations. You can help raise funds through the WWF Adopt an Animal scheme.

From as little as £3 a month you receive a certificate, a print of your animal, a greetings card, and a soft toy that would make a fantastic charity gift for a loved one.

> > Click here to Adopt an Animal with WWF UK

View other top charity gifts

WWF charity officials are concerned that Japan is at risk of undermining its own commitment to reduce carbon emissions reductions of 25% below 1990 levels by 2020 as using the ‘cap and trade’ scheme as agreed under the Copenhagen Accord framework. The climate bill is being lobbied against by industry labour unions who see the change as the possible cause of job loss, ignoring the fact that new jobs will be created in clean energy and other industrial sectors.

WWF-Japan’s Head of Climate Change, Naoyuki Yamagishi, said -

If the bill includes ‘intensity-based’ emissions trading schemes then it ignores the emissions cap that the Japanese government has promised to the Japanese people during the elections and to the world following the Copenhagen Accord. For the scheme to be called a ‘cap and trade’ scheme, it needs to have a real emissions cap.

Japan should not send wrong signals by making its action conditional on an international agreement.  It will not only jeopardize the credibility of the Japanese target internationally but will also slow down domestic actions. There is no time to waste, and Japan needs to avoid locking itself further into development using environmentally and socially unsustainable technologies. The current language in the bill could be interpreted as Japan doing nothing to reduce emissions if there is no comprehensive international agreement.

With many governments promoting a carbon intensity framework rather than absolute targets, now is the time for the many ministries across the globe to stand up and be counted. An intensity based commitment would seriously undermine the Copenhagen Accord, with emissions increasing globally if this strategy is followed. Japanese groups are calling on the government to drop the clauses in the new bill that threaten Japan’s existing pledge to cut gas emissions by 25% by 2020, one of the most ambitious targets in the world.

WWF-UK’s Head of Climate Change, Keith Allott, said -

Japan’s 25%  target is one of the strongest that any country has committed to so far. It should remain as an example to others; Japan should not chase everyone else in a race to the bottom, and to the disastrous climate impacts that will result.

Help WWF UK with a Charity Gift

The WWF is a non profit organisation who can only sustain their tireless work in saving the planet and its inhabitants through donations. You can help raise funds through the WWF Adopt an Animal scheme.

From as little as £3 a month you receive a certificate, a print of your animal, a greetings card, and a soft toy that would make a fantastic charity gift for a loved one.

> > Click here to Adopt an Animal with WWF UK

View other top charity gifts

Only 2 weeks now until the WWF charity Earth Hour, which will be taking place in the UK at 8.30pm on Saturday 27th March 2010. Over 1000 cities and towns across the globe will be taking part by switching off their lights to show they care about climate change. 88 countries took part across the world last year and 2010 looks like even more will be taking part in what will be one of the world’s biggest unified messages to the world leaders that climate change need to be dealt with.

World famous landmarks across 25 time zones will be switching off their lights for one hour, including in the UK -

• Big Ben
• Piccadilly Circus
• London Eye
• Royal Albert Hall
• Manchester’s Trafford Centre
• Inverness Castle
• Wales Millennium Stadium

Supported by companies like M&S, Coca-Cola and Ikea, this worldwide phenomenon will show the world’s leader that the people of the planet are serious about stopping climate change. First time participants include Kosovo, Madagascar, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Mongolia, Cambodia, Czech Republic, Paraquay, Ecuador and the US Commonwealth of the Northern Marina Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Head of Campaigns at WWF-UK, Colin Butfield, said -

This years Earth Hour hopes to attract some one billion people. By signing up to switch off their lights, individuals, businesses, towns and cities can join a global phenomenon and show world leaders that we care about climate change.

> > Click here to sign up for Earth Hour

Help WWF UK with a Charity Gift

The WWF is a non profit organisation who can only sustain their tireless work in saving the planet and its inhabitants through donations. You can help raise funds through the WWF Adopt an Animal scheme.

From as little as £3 a month you receive a certificate, a print of your animal, a greetings card, and a soft toy that would make a fantastic charity gift for a loved one.

> > Click here to Adopt an Animal with WWF UK

View other top charity gifts