QMS & EMS London

The Government is consulting on setting up biodiversity offsetting through the planning system. It sets out the Government’s objectives for biodiversity offsetting and options for implementation, asking a series of detailed questions. The consultation takes the form of a green paper on biodiversity offsetting.

As well as changing technology, changing behaviour is crucial to cutting carbon and the fifth ECRP pilot has shown how well-planned initiatives can result in significant savings. Set up in 1989 to support research into cancer and developmental biology, the Gurdon Institute uses around 5 million kWh of electricity a year, giving it the third highest CO2 emissions in the university.

Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Stephen Hawking are among the greatest minds that have studied and worked at the University of Cambridge. Within its walls, the electron was discovered, the structure of DNA was mapped and the atom was split. But world-leading scientific research comes with a hefty carbon footprint. The university – which attracts the largest amount of investment for academic research in the UK – generated 77,604 tonnes of CO2 in 2010, and has an annual electricity bill of more than £10 million.

A volcano the size of New Mexico or the British Isles has been identified under the Pacific Ocean, about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) east of Japan, making it the biggest volcano on Earth and one of the biggest in the solar system. The structure topples the previous largest on Earth, Mauna Loa in Hawaii. Tamu Massif is a rounded dome that measures about 280 by 400 miles (450 by 650 kilometers), or more than 100,000 square miles. Its top lies about 6,500 feet (about 2,000 meters) below the ocean surface, while the base extends down to about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) deep. Tamu Massif dwarfs the largest active volcano on Earth, Mauna Loa in Hawaii, which measures about 2,000 square miles (5,200 square kilometers).

On 11 January 2007 a Chinese ground-based missile was used to destroy the Fengyun-IC spacecraft, an aging satellite orbiting more than 500 miles in space since May 1999. Although the test was hugely successful from a military point of view, demonstrating China's ability to use very sophisticated weapons to target regions of space that are home to various satellites and space-based systems, it caused great concerns to both the military and scientific communities.

Safe thresholds of ozone pollution were breached at 25% of air quality monitoring stations across the bloc in July, according to preliminary data collated by the agency. Under EU air quality rules, member states have to inform the EEA if levels of ozone (O3) rise above 180 micrograms (µg) per cubic metre of air – the level at which there is a risk to some sections of the population from even a brief exposure.