Author: Kerstin Schnatz

Scotland is one of the few nations in the world to have a Minister of Climate Change. We met Paul Weelhouse today at the World Climate Summit 2012 where he discussed the global energy mix of the future. While Qatar, represented by it’s Minister of Energy and Industry, counts heavily on natural gas, Scotland takes a differnt turn. Even though Scotland still is the biggest producer of oil and gas in the European Union and wants to keep this role, the country aims to run on 100% renewables by 2020. To reach this ambitious goal, lots of money and manpower are invested already. Even the mystic sea-monster Nessie takes part in the Scottish developement – but hear and see for yourself.

Paul Wheelhouse, Scottish Minister for Environment an Climate Change @WCS from DW_Global Ideas on Vimeo.

Ikea, which is the biggest home furnishings chain in the world, has announced it’s making a big commitment to clean energy. The company has purchased a big wind farm in Scotland and plans to install almost 40,000 solar panels on its stores in the United Kingdom.

Ikea bought the 12.3 megawatt wind farm in Scotland as a way to promote clean energy use in its stores and facilities and it looks like that plan will work: the energy from that wind farm could generate 30% of the energy used by all of Ikea’s stores in the UK. And the solar panels will produce another 5% of the stores’ energy. Best of all, Ikea will end up saving money in the long-run by cutting down on all those energy bills!

Scotland has put together a marine atlas to chart its biodiversity and help marine planners make development decisions along the country's coast. The Scottish government has made the entire atlas and a variety of information available online, but they also put up this video as a guide.

 

The atlas helps us understand the state of Scotland's seas. That's important for scientists who want to study marine biodiversity in the region. And the atlas is a kind of manual to help developers understand where they need to be careful of precious sea life–from coral reefs to animals. And last but not least, it helps environmentalists understand the challenges Scotland faces in preserving its biodiversity, too.

 

Should more countries invest time and research into a marine atlas? How would it benefit the marine life where you life?