• Plastic packaging tax could increase plastic exports warn experts

    E&T has also heard concerns that the tax will not be paid back into the UK’s recycling system, with retailers warning that the added costs could be passed on to consumers, exacerbating the cost-of-living crisis. From 1 April, businesses manufacturing or importing ten tonnes or more a year of plastic packaging that contains less than 30 per cent recycled plastic will be taxed at £200 per tonne. Big supermarkets and other retailers that produce and sell own-brand products will need to pay the tax. Imports of packaging which already contains goods, such as plastic bottles filled with drinks or plastic packaging around goods, will also be subject to the tax. In Europe, the EU Commission has already introduced a plastic packaging levy on Member States at a rate of €800/tonne based on the amount…

  • Electric scooter warning noise research sounds note of optimism

    The new funding backs progress towards a universal sound for e-scooters, as part of the ‘Safe and Sound’ project. Dott (aka emTransit B.V.) is a European mobility operator with over 30,000 electric scooters in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and now the UK. The company aims to expand its UK operations and recently won a tender for the Transport for London e-scooter trials. Dott scooters is looking to mitigate potential safety hazards to pedestrians with the use of an Acoustics Vehicle Alerting System (AVAS) for distinct e-scooter category. The three-way partnership between Dott, the RNIB and the University of Salford was launched in 2021 with the report ' Generation and Analysis of Artificial Warning Sounds for Electric Scooters '. It has supported research into the first feasibility…

  • Oil prices fall as US considers record reserves release

    The price of Brent crude – the most used way of measuring the UK’s oil price – fell by nearly $4 (£3.05) to $109.21 (£83.21) a barrel on reports that President Joe Biden is considering releasing up to 180 million barrels from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve. This would be the biggest release since they created the reserve in 1974. News outlets expect Biden to announce his administration’s latest measures to address soaring fuel prices later today (31 March). “Desperate times, clearly call for desperate measures and clearly the Biden administration believes the spike in oil prices warrants this move to eat into the country’s emergency supplies,” said Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. “A drip release of one million barrels of oil is on the…

  • Safety fears emerge over government’s EV charging strategy

    While the ECA said it broadly welcomed the strategy, published last week, it warned that the government’s focus on “market-led” strategy and lack of joined-up policy could “encourage a race-to-the-bottom approach”. Andrew Eldred, the ECA’s director of workforce and public affairs, said: “Safe, high-quality electrical work needs to be done by electrically competent people. We know for a fact that our industry is ready to rise to the challenge of Net Zero, but a purely ‘market-led’ policy can lead to a race to the bottom on cost and a drop in quality follows. “This will inevitably compromise the efficiency and safety of what gets installed.” Eldred's comments come just days after Electrical Safety First - a charity dedicated to reducing fires, deaths and injuries arising from electricity…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Nearly 40 per cent of UK businesses hit by cyber attacks

    The ' Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2022 ' revealed that the most common threat vector was phishing attempts, reported by 83 per cent of businesses. The annual survey is intended to be a useful research study for UK cyber resilience, aligning with the National Cyber Strategy. It is primarily used to inform government policy on cyber security, making the UK cyber space a secure place to do business. The study explores the policies, processes and approaches to cyber security for businesses, charities and educational institutions. It also considers the different cyber attacks these organisations face, as well as how these organisations are impacted and respond. While the 39 per cent of UK businesses which identified a cyber attack is a consistent figure with recent years, the survey also…

  • University partnerships to help decarbonise electricity grid

    Teams from Cardiff, Edinburgh, Exeter, Manchester, Southampton and Strathclyde Universities will work with NGET colleagues on topics related to NGET’s work maintaining the electricity network in England, Scotland and Wales. The five-year partnerships are intended to help enable the transition to a cleaner electricity system through knowledge sharing and creation of a culture of innovation, both between NGET and individual universities and as an entire collective. The collaborations will also focus on new approaches to NGET’s day-to-day management of the network, calling on the knowledge and expertise of the universities to ensure a continued focus on resilience and security of supply. Other focus areas include low-emissions technologies and new power electronics applications, as well as…

  • EV makers race to find workaround as supply shortages bite

    Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the race is on for electric vehicle manufacturers, OEMs and their suppliers to find a solution to the critical supply shortages that are already impeding the production of battery-electric vehicles in Europe and the US. Car makers and EV platforms are desperate to establish alternative sources of supply for some components, which would typically come from production plants in Ukraine. Makers of EV batteries and semiconductors are also vying for supplies of vital raw materials, such as palladium and nickel, as well as noble gases such as neon, which are typically sourced from Russia and Ukraine. About half of the world’s supply of semiconductor-grade neon is sourced from two Ukrainian companies, Ingas and Cryoin. The gas is a by-product of the separation…

  • Committee challenges police use of AI

    The Lords Justice and Home Affairs committee said new technologies were being created in a “new Wild West” without the law and public awareness keeping up with developments, warning that the lack of oversight meant “users are in effect making it up as they go along”. The cross-party group added that while AI has the potential to improve people’s lives, it could have “serious implications” for human rights and civil liberties in the justice system. “Algorithms are being used to improve crime detection, aid the security categorisation of prisoners, streamline entry clearance processes at our borders and generate new insights that feed into the entire criminal justice pipeline,” the peers said. The committee added that scrutiny was not ensuring new tools were “safe, necessary, proportionate…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Petition calling for 40 per cent cut in fuel duty hits 100,000 signatures

    The petition calls for fuel duty and VAT on fuel to be slashed by 40 per cent for two years. Fuel retailers have been accused of failing to fully pass on the 5p per litre cut in fuel duty introduced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak in last week's Spring Statement. In theory, that cut represented a saving of 6p per litre because of its impact on VAT. However, the average price of a litre of petrol at UK forecourts has fallen by just 3.8p per litre. Figures from data firm Experian Catalist show the average price per litre on Tuesday was 163.5p, compared with 167.3p on 22 March. The average price of diesel fell by 2.2p per litre over the same period, from 179.7p to 177.5p. Rod Dennis, RAC fuel spokesman, said: “If the Treasury wasn’t aware of the strength of feeling when it comes to fuel prices…

  • Dyson unveils headphones with air-purifying mask

    Known as the Dyson Zone, the wearable device combines noise-cancelling over-ear headphones with a visor that sits in front of the nose and mouth that delivers filtered air. The air-purifying headphones result from over a decade of air-quality research and development and were designed to tackle the urban issues of air quality and noise pollution. “Air pollution is a global problem – it affects us everywhere we go. In our homes, at school, at work, and as we travel, whether on foot, on a bike, or by public or private transport,” said chief engineer Jake Dyson. “The Dyson Zone purifies the air you breathe on the move.” Jake Dyson unveils the new Dyson Zone air-purifying headphones in London. Image credit: Matt Alexander As the world’s urban population continues…

  • Cement industry takes next step on path to net zero

    Egypt, which will host the COP27 2022 UN Climate Change Conference later this year, is among the initial group of countries leading an international initiative to decarbonise the global cement and concrete industries. It joins India, Thailand and Colombia in the first wave of a series of Net Zero Accelerator projects announced by the Global Cement and Concrete Association today as part of plans to achieves targets established by its 2050 Net Zero Global Industry Roadmap. The four countries together represent approximately 10 per cent of the world’s cement and concrete production. Globally, cement and concrete manufacture accounts for around 7 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions. The GCCA roadmap, which was claimed to mark the biggest international commitment by a heavy industry to decarbonise…

  • ‘Paradigm change’ needed for forecasting corrosion damage of bridges

    A group of researchers from Switzerland, the US, Canada and Norway have said the most common cause of degradation and failures of reinforced concrete structures is chloride-induced corrosion of embedded steel elements. They warned that the issue is a “pervasive, urgent problem” that requires more attention and public awareness. An underlying concept of a chloride threshold is widely used, and all existing models to forecast corrosion performance of reinforced concrete structures exposed to chloride environments are based on this one common theoretical concept. But the researchers believe change is needed to address the growing challenges of ageing structures losing functionality and potentially collapsing, as well as their associated greenhouse gas emissions. “Corrosion of steel within…

  • IT body raises concerns over campaign to limit end-to-end encryption

    Facebook has previously announced plans to roll out end-to-end encryption across its messaging services. However, a recent campaign backed by the Government warned against a wider tech industry rollout. Critics of the technology have asked firms to find a way of allowing law-enforcement agencies to access communications while still protecting privacy, warning that otherwise the public, and particularly children, could be at greater risk of being exposed to worrying content and online predators. But in a survey carried out by IT professional body the BCS, 78 per cent of industry professionals said they did not believe restricting the use of such encryption in messaging would protect users. The research also found a further 66 per cent of specialists said restricting such encryption would…

  • BT halts removal of landline phones following customer backlash

    BT, among other telecoms companies, had pledged to equip all homes with digital voice-over-internet phones by 2025 as part of a much needed update to the UK’s communication infrastructure. The controversial rollout, which saw copper landlines removed in favour of fibre-optic cables, have resulted in some customers being unable to call 999 when their power has gone out as a result of storms cutting off their internet access. BT’s chief executive of consumer brands Marc Allera apologised and said the firm had “underestimated the disruptive impact this upgrade would have.” He added that “in hindsight” the company had rolled the technology out “too early”. Allera added that the disruption caused by recent Storms Arwen and Eunice brought these issues into sharper focus when people – including…

  • Book review: ‘The Joy of Science’ by Jim Al-Khalili

    “When you haven’t been properly introduced to a subject, it can seem downright forbidding,” says Jim Al-Khalili in the preface to his slender volume that sets out to explain to those who haven’t yet read the memo just why science is not only crucial but one of life’s great pleasures. While the poet Keats thought that Newton had destroyed the rainbow by explaining how prisms work, the theoretical physicist Al-Khalili goes into raptures about refraction. And it’s a good place to start a primer on how to think scientifically – plenty of other writers have started here too – because, if nothing else, rainbows aren’t forbidding. Although entitled ‘The Joy of Science’ (Princeton University Press, £12.99, ISBN 9780691211572), this book might just as easily have been called the gentle philosophy…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Towards a circular economy in lighting

    As a global society, we are incredibly and unsustainably wasteful. According to a recent WWF report , we use 1.8 times the volume of resources that our planet can sustain. Another study from the World Economic Forum estimates that one truckload of plastic is dumped into our oceans every minute. If we continue at the current rate, this is expected to increase to two per minute by 2030, and four per minute by 2050. As the world continues to overuse its limited resources, increasingly scarce materials will become more expensive and challenging to source. We owe it to our customers and the world to do better. The only way to do this is to create a model of manufacturing products with minimal waste that can be upgraded, serviced, reused, refurbished, or recycled and support saving energy. At…

  • National Grid to sell 60 per cent of its gas business

    The deal was first announced in March 2021 and forms part of National Grid’s shift towards investing more into its electricity business following last year’s acquisition of Western Power Distribution (WPD). The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) gave the green light for the £7.8bn takeover of WPD in September after an investigation over the deal’s potential impact on the market. Once the sale of its gas business has gone through, National Grid will receive approximately £2.2bn in cash and will continue to own a 40 per cent minority equity interest. It will also receive approximately £2bn from additional debt financing at completion. Like the WPD purchase, completion of the sale will be subject to certain antitrust and regulatory conditions, but National Grid said it expects the transaction…

  • Electric car lifecycle emissions to fall 10 per cent by 2030, report finds

    Due to the UK’s relatively clean electricity mix, a typical electric car is estimated to save around 65 per cent greenhouse gas emissions compared to an equivalent conventional petrol car. A report from engineering firm Ricardo calculates that by 2030, over their entire life-cycle, EVs could see about 76 per cent lower emissions in future due to improvements in battery technology, battery manufacturing and end-of-life treatment as well as improved battery technology and a further decarbonised UK electricity grid. By 2050, these savings could increase to 81 per cent as carbon emission from EV production comes close to parity with conventional vehicles. Hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles also offer the opportunity to deliver large emissions savings for delivery lorries and other commercial…

  • How data is setting manufacturing on the smart path to digitalisation

    It seems there will be little let-up in supply chain disruption in 2022 for UK manufacturers – and many are focusing their investments on digital transformation accordingly. The year began well enough for the industry, with domestic demand rising, raw material shortages falling and delivery delays in abatement. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in March has already brought with it additional headwinds - a surge in energy costs is the most obvious for heavy-industry companies, but Russia is also a large exporter of crude oil, as well as commodities such as wheat and metals used in the aerospace, automotive and electronics industries, among others. Sanctions and export restrictions are a valid, justifiable and necessary response to the devastating loss of human life and vast displacement…

  • Tech firms face new rules as EU countries, lawmakers clinch fair market deal

    France, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, said in a tweet that there was a provisional agreement after eight hours of talks between negotiators for the Parliament and the Council (representing the governments of member states). The European Commission has welcomed the agreement. “What we want is simple: fair markets also in digital. Large gatekeeper platforms have prevented businesses and consumers from the benefit of competitive digital markets,” said EU anti-trust chief Margrethe Vestager, who proposed the rules just over a year ago. Meanwhile, EU industry chief Thierry Breton said in a separate tweet that the deal would ensure fair and open digital markets. EU lawmaker Andreas Schwab, who had steered the debate in European Parliament, added: “This means that the time…

  • Waste industry joins call for global ban on plastic exports

    Representatives from the UK waste industry this week told a cross-party group of MPs that any ban should be global – and not just cover non-OECD countries as proposed by Defra. Speaking in front of the environment, food and rural affairs (EFRA) committee on Tuesday, Jacob Hayler, executive director of the Environmental Services Association (ESA) said the vast majority of plastic waste is currently exported from the UK under the Green list category. This means firms do not have to pre-notify the Environment Agency (EA) about where they are exporting waste; “this makes it very challenging for them to be able to regulate that appropriately”, he said. Hayler said there was also a lack of transparency about where some of the plastic waste was ending up. “While there are requirements that the…

  • Government unveils strategy for tenfold increase in EV chargepoints by 2030

    In a new strategy published today, the government said it would funnel £1.6bn into expanding the UK charging network. The announcement came alongside the confirmation of a £1bn investment plan from BP to expand and upgrade its Pulse EV charging network across the UK. The strategy includes a target to make around 300,000 public chargers available by 2030 - equivalent to almost five times the number of fuel pumps on UK roads today. In 2020, the Climate Change Committee, which advises the government on its net zero ambitions, estimated 325,000 public charging points would be needed by 2032. Currently there are around 29,000 public plug-in points. However, the RAC said it was concerned 300,000 may still not be enough. Nicholas Lyes, RAC’s head of policy, said: “While the government’s expectation…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • View from Brussels: Shields up

    The European quarter of the Belgian capital went into a particularly strict period of lockdown on Thursday as Joe Biden arrived in Brussels for not one, not two but three international summits. If it were not for the thick layer of pollution plaguing the rain-starved skies of Brussels these days, you would have been hard pressed to make out any blue among the swarm of helicopters that were keeping a watchful eye on the city. Top of the agenda was how to wean Europe off of its dependence on Russian energy imports, which are helping to fund Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine to the tune of hundreds of millions of euros every day. EU countries have flinched at the thought of voluntarily cutting off the oil and gas flows overnight but may have less say in the matter if the Kremlin decides…

  • US and EU seal LNG deal to undercut Russian energy

    The pact, announced during a visit by US President Joe Biden to Brussels, follows a day of three summits in the European Union capital whereby leaders lambasted Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and offered fresh support to Kyiv. “We’re coming together to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russia’s energy," Biden said. “We should not subsidise Putin’s brutal attack on Ukraine.” The invasion by Europe’s top gas supplier has pushed already-high energy prices to records and prompted the EU to pledge to cut Russian gas use by two-thirds this year by hiking imports from other countries. The US and other nations will increase LNGs to Europe by 15 billion cubic metres (bcm) this year. The longer-term aim would be to ensure, until at least 2030, about 50bcm per year of additional US LNG, a White House…

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