The British Council International Climate Champion Iranildo de Sousa Ferreira was selected by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to represent Brazil at the TUNZA International Children & Youth Conference on the Environment. The conference starts today.

Iranildo de Sousa Ferreira was selected from thousands of applicants from around the world. He will be at the TUNZA International Conference in Indonesia until 01 October .
Iranildo helped to prepare proposals to be presented in the next United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development – Rio +20, and will evaluate the contribution of youth to the International Year of Forests and share his experiences of activism and his work with experts in the environmental area.

TUNZA will be held by the UNEP in collaboration with the Government of Indonesia. It will bring together 1400 children and youth, to discuss their role and inputs to the upcoming United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development – Rio+20. Under the slogan “Reshaping our future through a Green Economy and Sustainable Lifestyle”, the conference will also review the contribution of youth to the International Year of Forests and how they can adopt more environment-friendly lifestyles. The conference themes are Rio + 20 (Green Economy) / Green Lifestyles, Forests, Sustainable Consumption and State of the Global Environment from the youth perspective.

“This is not a time for pessimism or to turn a blind eye to environmental problems. It is time for constructive and decisive action because the alert signal has been given.” Iranildo says.

A new study by Jato Dynamics shows that Germany has the strongest market for electric cars so far in 2011. There were 1,020 new electric vehicles registered in the first half of the year in Germany – even though the country has one of the lowest government subsidies in Europe.

Why? Some experts believe the cost really has little to do with whether people buy electric cars or not – instead, people buying cars look at where they live, what the infrastructure is like and what a car is really worth.

But the good news is, EV (electric vehicle) sales in Europe in general have exploded in just a year’s time. There were more than 5,000 new electric cars registered in Europe in the first six months of 2011. That’s about 10 times – yes, 10 times! – as many EV’s as the first half of 2010. And as we saw at the Frankfurt Auto Show, the future for electric vehicles seems to be glowing brighter every day…

Every 2 years, the U.S. Department of Energy hosts the Solar Decathalon in Washington D.C. It’s an international event where 20 different collegiate teams compete to see who can build the coolest, most energy-efficient, most stylish solar-powered home. As you can imagine, the students who take part are really inventive and creative, and the competition always boasts spectacular projects.

The New York Times already featured one team’s house, called the Empowerhouse, a ”shoebox-shaped mystery building.

The structure was put together in New Jersey by a team of students from the area using a combination of architecture, design, and green technology. The coolest thing? The house not only looks good, but it produces as much electricity as it uses every year – so a zero-emissions home.

But Empowerhouse is just one of the interesting designs being featured at this year’s Solar Decathalon competition. You can check out all the latest pictures and news, including news of the big winner when the competition ends, here.

May the best house win!

Next time you eat an orange, think twice about chucking the peel into a bin – it might just help generate low-carbon plastic or energy in the future. An international group of scientists has come up with an innovative way of recycling food waste such as orange peel or coffee grounds.

Researchers at the universities of York, Sao Paulo and Cordoba have found that high-powered microwave heating can help activate cellulose in a variety of food waste, triggering the release of several chemicals. These include limonene, used in various household chemicals, and bio-ethanol  which can be used as a substitute for diesel fuel. These chemicals could ultimately be used to make many of the chemicals and materials that we currently need oil for.  And it could help tackle the growing problem of food waste.

The project called OPEC, or the Orange Peel Exploitation Company, plans to tie up with the juice-making industry in Brazil, a huge producer of orange peel residue.  As a first step, there are plans to build a pilot plant in York that would process about 10 kilograms of waste per hour.

Glitzy, sporty, fast, small, and above all green. That’s the theme at this year’s Frankfurt Auto Show that’s taking place this week. It’s one of the biggest and most important auto shows in the world, and it’s the place where carmakers premiere their latest and best models….and that’s just what they’ve done. Major automakers like Daimler, Ford, VW, Renault, and BMW are all trying to one-up each other to see who has the coolest and best eco-friendly car out there.

Audi, for example, showed off it’s new Urban Concept – in the picture you see above. It’s a futuristic example of what Audi calls the perfect car for congested city living. It’s extremely light-weight, completely electric and looks, well, cool.

VW showed off a car that looked very very similar in this picture below…

It’s called the “Nils” and is also electric, lightweight and a car of the future. VW unveiled another electric car that’s actually intended to hit the roads in the very near future: the Up.

The Up is set to hit production (and roads in Europe) by next year, and in Germany it would cost around 9,000 Euros.

And of course BMW was in on the competition too. The carmaker showed off the first roadsters in its “i” sub-brand series, the i3 and i8. The picture you see here is the i8, an electric sports car that’s been getting a lot of attention for its stylish, sporty look and it’s eco-friendly technology.

And that’s just scratching the surface! The Frankfurt Auto Show truly has some of the best and most innovative green technology ever in the auto industry – and those cars of the future might be drawing ever closer to the present…