Are we going to suffer the wrath of the hose pipe bans this year? With the month of May indicating we're in for a hot summer will last years floods be forgotten and water levels prove to be disasterously low?

The UK is falling behind the rest of Europe when it comes to recycling electrical appliances, it has been warned.

Earlier this month, a survey was published by information technology and communications equipment maker Dell which revealed that just one percent of people in the UK bother to recycle electrical goods.

Responding to this statistic, environmental group Waste Watch suggested that more should be done to educate and encourage people to responsibly dispose of their unwanted electronics.

The UK is falling behind in efforts to acquire energy from renewable sources, an unpublished report from the Department of Energy and Climate Change has warned.

According to the Times, internal forecasts by the department suggest that the UK is on track to be sourcing just 5 percent of its total energy from renewables by 2020, significantly under the 15 percent European target which it has signed up to.

Renewables Obligation
What is the Renewables Obligation (RO)?

The RO is the main support scheme for renewable electricity projects in the UK. It places an obligation on UK suppliers of electricity to source an increasing proportion of their electricity from renewable sources.

The Renewables Obligation is the main support scheme for renewable electricity projects in the UK. It places an obligation on UK suppliers of electricity to source an increasing proportion of their electricity from renewable sources.

A Renewables Obligation Certificate (ROC) is a green certificate issued to an accredited generator for eligible renewable electricity generated within the United Kingdom and supplied to customers within the United Kingdom by a licensed electricity supplier.

Is it too late to save the planet? The UK Government plans to spend it's way out of global meltdown, not just from financial meltdown but environmentally too. Future jobs are to be green, green apprentices and green cars are the future.

The price of the benchmark 2009 contract hit an all-time low last week below the previous record of 12.80 euros. EUAs fell to near-zero in the first trading phase of the scheme from 2005-07, since dubbed a trial period.

The scheme limits emissions of heat-trapping CO2 from industrial installations including steel and power plants.

The price of permits has fallen on dwindling industrial carbon emissions as a result of recession and lower output, as well as falling energy demand and lower oil and gas prices.

Eco Homes need Energy Assessors.

All future buildings will have to have their energy needs assessed. FACT.

The challenge for the future is not to simply select new technologies that meet energy efficient criteria but to also make solutions affordable. Building energy efficient homes for the future make the task all the more exciting for Britains Architects and engineers but is the challenge to tall?

So many challenges are ahead of us and this is without considering the economic downturn.

In 2004 the University of Southampton secured £250k worth of DTI (tax payers money) to research solar PV technology and to thereafter put an affordable technology in to main stream production. Thus creating a green technology that produces electricity (during daylight hours) that is affordable for all. Their ultimate aim was to achieve a $1 a watt cell technology. Needless to say we are far far away from such an affordable cell.

Blackout Britain was yet another sensationalist report run by the BBC recently that brought our attention to the shortcomings of the current government and the governments before. France supplies the UK's electricty shortfall and France owns most of the UK's energy producers. It's not a question, where did we go wrong, it's a question how can we get back on track and secure the UK's future energy supply.