Oxford graduates ‘give back’ degree to protest over fossil fuels investment

1st October 201527th May 2015 by Jan Oliff

Almost 70 Oxford alumni have symbolically handed back their degrees to criticise the university’s weak policy on fossil fuels investment – which excludes only direct investment in oil sands and coal but fails to address other money invested in unsustainable sources of energy.

Oxford University announced last week it would maintain its position of not having direct investment in high-risk oil sands and coal; it also pledged to follow environmental and social criteria for its investment.

However, many have noted this policy does not go far enough, since it doesn’t rule out investment in all dirty energy sources.

As a protest against the decision, some Oxford graduates have symbolically handed back their degrees on Saturday, calling for the school to take serious action against climate change.

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Ecology : Electric Vehicles : Political notes and more

October 2015

Oslo, Norway’s capital, like most of the Scandinavian country’s cities and towns, boasts bus-lane access for electric vehicles (EVs), recharging stations aplenty, privileged parking, and toll-free travel for electric cars. The initiative began in the 1990s as an effort to cut pollution, congestion, and noise in urban centres; now its primary rationale is combating climate change. Today, Norway has the highest per capita number of all-electric [battery only] cars in the world: more than 100,000 in a country of 5.2 million people. Last year, EVs constituted nearly 40% of the nation’s newly registered passenger cars. Norway is the clear electric vehicle pacesetter in Europe, which now has about 500,000 electric vehicles.

And the Norwegian experiment shows every sign of accelerating. Earlier this year, Norway opened the world’s largest fast-charging station, which can charge up to 28 vehicles in about half an hour.

Hackney Council has installed the first publicly accessible on-street rapid charging posts for electrical vehicles in London, so increasing the charging options of EV users in the capital.
The three units, which are supplied by APT Technologies a leading innovator in EV charging solutions, are the very latest Tri-Rapid Chargers and are located in Shoreditch, Dalston and Hackney Central.

China leads the world in EV usage, with about 600,000 all-electric vehicles on its roads and an ambitious plan to deploy 5m EVs by 2020.

Wind power generates 140% of Denmark's electricity demand http://bit.ly/1IOI0jV
Unusually high winds allowed Denmark to meet all of its electricity needs – with plenty to spare for Germany, Norway and Sweden too

Professional Financial Advice
Jan Oliff
www.oliff.info