The most recent articles from Incisive Media

Behaviour-based advertising

Anthony Dhanendran — 2009-11-10T09:30:00.000Z

Anthony Dhanendran, Computeractive, Tuesday 10 November 2009 at 09:30:00

Find out how website use advertising

On the internet it’s possible to get news, pictures, music, video and all kinds of other information legally and without having to pay for it.

This is made possible by advertising – for example, when you read an article on this website, it appears on your screen along with a couple of advertisements that help us to pay for the site.

With new technology, though, companies can monitor what people do online and send them advertising that is appropriate to them, based on their habits. This ‘behavioural advertising’ has caused a huge amount of controversy – but is it anything to be afraid of?

Everyone’s a winner

The promise of behavioural advertising is that everybody wins. The advertisers get to show more appropriate adverts, so there’s a greater likelihood that they’ll be clicked, making them more effective. The websites stand to make more money from the adverts, which increases their profits. Internet users, meanwhile, don’t get bothered with adverts that aren’t relevant, instead receiving more useful offers and information as well as free access to the site.

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) also stand to benefit. Some behavioural advertising systems, such as the Webwise system developed by Phorm, require special software or equipment to be installed at the ISP, allowing these companies to make money by striking deals with the advertising companies.

So if every party stands to gain from behavioural advertising, why has it caused so much controversy? There are two key issues that cause disagreement: whether users should be concerned about people keeping track of things they do online, and whether they have any choice in the matter.

Cookie monsters

It’s important to note that the idea of websites tracking where you surf online is not new. For years websites have used a technology called cookies to keep track of what their users do. These can track how often you visit a site, or which pages you view, but they are normally limited to a single website or a group of sites owned by one company. They’re largely innocuous, although some security software will classify them as harmful and remove them, and it’s easy to delete or block any cookies you don’t want.

Cookies should not be confused with adware – software that is installed on your PC and snoops on what you’re up to in order to display ads. This can normally be removed by internet security software. In general, though, both cookies and adware can be easily removed from your PC if you wish, leaving you in full control.

Your browsing can also be tracked by websites such as search engines. Google, for instance, monitors the words and phrases you search for, and uses this to display relevant adverts to the right of the search results. This kind of technology isn’t reserved to search pages, either: when the Google Mail service was set up in 2004 the company made waves by announcing that it would subsidise it through targeted advertising. It reads emails that are sent or received by Google Mail addresses and displays advertising appropriate to the emails’ content.

If you have a Google Mail account it’s easy to see this working – log in and read an email, and you will usually see an advertisement on the page that bears some relevance to your message. If you’re emailing friends about booking a holiday, for instance, you may see adverts from travel companies.

Google promises that this is all done anonymously and that individual users aren’t being tracked but, in any case, with search engines users have a choice – if you don’t like the idea of Google Mail’s computers reading your messages, you’re free to find a different email service.

Phorm in a teacup?

With the new forms of behavioural advertising, it’s less clear exactly how much control users will have. Internet use will be monitored as information passes through their ISP, and stopping it won’t be as simple as deleting a few cookies or uninstalling some adware.

The best-known example of this technology is that made by Phorm. Its Webwise technology is designed to be installed by ISPs, where it will monitor what users are looking at online and serve them relevant adverts. Rather than just noting when a user is online and whether they’re using email or the web, it examines exactly what you’re looking at or saying. If you search an online store for pet food, for example, it’ll spot this and serve you pet-related adverts. The level of analysis is far greater than that used by Google Mail.

Phorm says that it allocates random numbers to individual users rather than tracking them via their network address, and says this makes for ‘full anonymity’. Nonetheless, Phorm has faced significant opposition.

Early concerns about the system revolved around the idea of users having their internet use monitored without their notice or consent. BT ran a trial in the summer of 2007, monitoring the surfing habits of thousands of its users. It then ran another Phorm trial in 2008. Users were not notified beforehand that their surfing would be scrutinised.

The police, government and Information Commissioner’s Office (which advises the public and government data se curity) all received complaints from the public after Phorm’s first trials, but no action was taken.

Opt in or opt out

Other concerns about Phorm revolve around the idea of how users can choose not to be a part of the service. There’s a debate over whether users should ‘opt in’, choosing to take part if they want to see more relevant adverts, or whether ISPs can enrol all their customers and give them a way to ‘opt out’.

The Information Commissioner’s Office says that under the Data Protection Act, companies must choose ‘opt in’ only if so-called ‘sensitive personal information’ is being monitored. But the law isn’t clear what ‘sensitive personal information’ is, and BT claims that the data it looked at in its Phorm trial was not sensitive. It’s something the courts must decide on.

The European Commission has already taken action against the British Government for failing to ensure internet users’ privacy after receiving several complaints from UK users. Viviane Reding, EU telecommunications commissioner, said in April: “The rules are quite clear. A person’s information can only be used with their prior consent. We cannot give up this basic principle and have all our exchanges monitored, surveyed and stored in exchange for a promise of ‘more relevant’ advertising”.

The Government has said that Phorm’s technology doesn’t break the law but privacy expert Richard Clayton of Cambridge University disagrees. “The EU has concluded that the Phorm system’s snooping is unlawful because permission has not been obtained from both the user and the website owner,” he told Computeractive in April.

Phorm has responded to the EU, saying: “Our technology is fully compliant with UK legislation and relevant EU directives. This has been confirmed by the UK regulatory authorities and we note that there is no suggestion to the contrary in the Commission’s statement today. Our system offers unmissable notice and clear and persistent choice to consumers.”

Websites want out

Some websites have already expressed a desire to opt their pages out of the Phorm system. The giant online store Amazon has requested its own removal from Phorm, and the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia has done the same. This stops Phorm seeing the pages users visit on their sites, but the Open Rights Group points out that Phorm can still see what items are being searched for as the words being searched for will pass through Phorm’s system at the ISP.

Phorm itself has fought back against its critics, describing itself as the victim of a ‘smear campaign’. It set up a website, www.stopphoulplay.com, containing allegations against a number of anti-phorm campaigners, some of whom it lists by name. One of them, campaigner Alex Hanff, told Computeractive the allegations on the site were ‘childish’.

The future of Phorm’s system is hard to predict: it faces vocal opposition, but several major ISPs have spoken of their plans to use it. Some might suggest that behavioural advertising should be stopped, but that could have downsides: with the recession biting, websites and ISPs that currently rely on advertising to provide free or low-cost services might be forced to raise their prices. Even if the technology becomes widespread we might, in future, face a choice between cheap broadband packages supported by behavioural advertising and more expensive ones with greater privacy.

How can import photos from my camera?

Computeractive Staff — 2009-11-10T09:30:00.000Z

Computeractive Staff, Computeractive, Tuesday 10 November 2009 at 09:30:00

Changing your Autorun settings

Q I have a problem copying photographs from my camera. Normally when I connect the camera to the computer a window pops up identifying the USB port and asks what I would like to do with the images on the card.

I tell it to copy them to a folder and it automatically opens a Microsoft wizard that takes me through a very simple copying routine. This has stopped happening, and while I can access the disk a different way, I can’t get into the wizard.

I don’t know if this is relevant but I remember some months ago Computeractive warned of a virus that entered the computer through USB memory devices and instructed us to download a piece of software that removed access to the stick by removing Autorun, which I did.

George Smith

A You are right to think that the Autorun change is what has caused the problem. Autorun is a part of Windows that starts whenever a CD or DVD is put into the computer or whenever a memory card or USB storage device is plugged in, which displays a menu asking what you would like to do with the files on the disk or card.

The reason we advised users to remove access is because a rather nasty virus is spreading via USB memory keys using the Autorun function. Disabling that means it is harder for the virus to get to your computer, but it has the side effect of changing the way you access devices such as your camera.

You don’t specify whether you are using Windows XP or Windows Vista, and the process differs slightly between the two.

In Windows XP, open My Computer, either by double-clicking it on the Desktop or by clicking its entry on the Start menu. In the window that appears, find the disk icon that corresponds to your camera, memory card or USB storage device.

Right-click this icon and select Autoplay. Select the entry ‘Copy pictures to a folder on my computer’ and click OK. The standard wizard should appear, and you can follow this as before. If the Autoplay entry doesn’t appear in the menu, or there’s no wizard entry in the menu that appears after that, you can access it using the Start menu. Click Start, then All Programs, then Accessories, then Scanner and Camera Wizard.

In Vista, the Scanner and Camera Wizard has been replaced. Instead, use the Windows Photo Gallery. From the Start menu, type the word photo and wait for the options to appear above. After a few seconds the entry for Windows Photo Gallery will appear – click it.

Alternatively click the Start menu, then All Programs, then scroll up or down the list to Windows Photo Gallery and click it.

When the Photo Gallery appears, click the File menu at the top of the window, and select ‘Import from Camera or Scanner’. A window will appear from which you can select the camera, card or disc that’s relevant – choose the one you want and click Import.

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Why do Outlook emails turn blue?

Computeractive Staff — 2009-11-10T09:30:00.000Z

Computeractive Staff, Computeractive, Tuesday 10 November 2009 at 09:30:00

Colour change in Outlook show you have replied to an email

Q I use Microsoft Outlook for my email, and it is generally pretty good, but sometimes when I reply to something I’ve been sent any text I enter appears in blue. Do you know why it does this (is it a bug?) and is there a way to make it stop?

Simon Jones

A It turns out this isn’t a bug but rather a part of Outlook that is set by default to make the text blue when you reply to any message.

The reason it only shows up on some messages is because when you send emails using the HTML format they can include different fonts and colours, thus your reply will appear in blue.

However, when you send a message using the text format it will not include colour information and your reply will appear in black. Unless you change the way Outlook works, by default if you’re sent an HTML email the reply will also be in HTML and so will appear in blue.

Text emails work the same, except the reply will be in black. To make all your replies, including HTML emails, black text, open Outlook and click the Tools menu, then Options. Click the Mail Format tab and click the Fonts button, in the middle of the dialogue box.

You will see a new dialogue box with three types of text listed at the top, the middle one of which will be blue. To change this, click the Choose Font button and select a new colour from the drop-down list at the bottom-left.

Click OK to confirm the change. You can also change the font entirely or change its size. Click OK to close the Fonts dialogue box, then OK again.

Note that the same does not apply to Outlook Express – if you are an Outlook Express user your replies should always appear as black text.

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Tax-artifact swap saves 700-year-old documents

Mario Christodoulou — 2009-11-10T09:05:00.000Z

Mario Christodoulou, Accountancy Age, Tuesday 10 November 2009 at 09:05:00

Penrhyn Castle hands over historic documents in place of tax

An artifacts-for-tax scheme has preserved parchments and documents stretching back 700 years old, BBC reports.

HM Revenue and Customs has struck a deal with the executors of the Penrhyn Castle which will see a collection of royal edicts and other artifacts which detail the history of the families in the area safe guarded in Bangor University.

The government initiative sees assets with historical or cultural value handed over in leiu of 40% of death duties on estates worth more than £325,000.

The Penrhyn collection covers the 13th to the 20th century. The owners may have been forced to sell the documents to cover the £290,000 tax bill if the scheme had not been in operation.

Gerry McQuillan, with HMRC's acquisitions, exports and loans unit, said the scheme is a win-win situation.

"The whole of the UK gains by being able to secure the future of beautiful artefacts, documents and paintings, and the executors of wills have a way out of their inheritance tax demands without having to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds in cash.

Read the full story: Ancient papers saved in tax deal

Tax Justice Network unveils haven blacklist

Becky Ashall — 2009-11-10T08:57:00.000Z

Becky Ashall, Accountancy Age, Tuesday 10 November 2009 at 08:57:00

Tax campaigners publish list of what it rates as world's most secretive tax havens in association with Christian Aid

The Tax Justice Network has compiled a league table of what it considers to be the world’s most secretive tax havens, including the USA (Delaware), Luxembourg and Switzerland.

The Financial Secrecy Index ,evaluates the transparency of each haven and their willingness to cooperate with other countries tax operations.

Christian Aid was also involved in the project, which saw researchers with a concern about the harmful impacts of tax avoidance, tax competition and tax havens draw up the index.

John Christensen, director of the Tax Justice Network’s international

secretariat, believed secrecy was a core feature of the global financial

system and jurisdictions compete with each other to provide it in order to

attract financial flows.

"But this comes at a price," said Christensen. "Financial secrecy provides cover for all manner of crimes and abusive practices: money laundering, tax evasion and

avoidance, insider trading, terrorist financing, embezzlement, Ponzi

schemes, illicit financial flows, fraud and much more."

"The Financial Secrecy Index shows just how entrenched the problem of

financial secrecy is. The index is an important tool that highlights the

desperate need for new rules in international finance that would make the

disclosure of information between different tax jurisdictions automatic."

MPs petition for lower insolvency fees

parliamentary correspondent — 2009-11-10T08:55:00.000Z

parliamentary correspondent, Accountancy Age, Tuesday 10 November 2009 at 08:55:00

Parliamentarians push government to protect the return to unsecured creditors

Parliamentarians have launched an attack on the fees charged by the insolvency profession after 30 MPs signed a cross-party Commons motion urging the government to review legislation so that charges might be reduced and unsecured creditors receive a greater return.

Written by Ochil and South Perthshire Labour MP Gordon Banks, the motion protests that "that current UK insolvency laws and regulations fail to adequately protect unsecured creditors".

Banks complained current law ensures practitioners receive their fees, then secured creditors, who may include banks, leaving unsecured creditors to share out whatever is left.

He said : "Unsecured creditors are in a very difficult position and are often exposed almost to breaking point when one of their customers goes bust.

"To resolve this situation we need to look at reducing the often significant fees charged by receivers, administrators and liquidators to allow for a larger proportion of the estate to be made available for creditors of all nature."

Banks said other means should also be considered to secure "a guaranteed slice of the cake for unsecured creditors".

Challenge to insolvency fees could backfire

Taxman targets avoidance on debt buybacks

parliamentary correspondent — 2009-11-10T08:31:00.000Z

parliamentary correspondent, Accountancy Age, Tuesday 10 November 2009 at 08:31:00

Ministers moves to close loophole

The Treasury has been forced to embark on a further round of tax avoidance measures on the buying back of debt at a discount.

Financial Secretary Stephen Timms said he was forced to prevent exploitation of a loophole opened up when he announced a tightening of the rules to ensure only debt buybacks undertaken with a discount, as part of a genuine corporate rescue, will benefit from the discount not being subject to tax.

The measure included provision for the debtor to be taxed on the discount when a subsequent release of debt takes place.

He told MPs: "It has since come to light that groups of companies may be able to avoid the discount that was not taxed at the time of the debt buyback being taxed on the subsequent release of the debt."

Any subsequent release of debt for shares will trigger a tax charge.

When introducing the package, Timms told MPs: "This Government will not tolerate tax avoidance or tax evasion in any form, and will act promptly to tackle both of these."

Interview: Scott Totzke, VP global security, RIM

Phil Muncaster — 2009-11-10T08:30:00.000Z

Phil Muncaster, V3.co.uk, Tuesday 10 November 2009 at 08:30:00

We ask the BlackBerry maker's head of security what CIOs need to do to mitigate mobile data risks

V3.co.uk: As vice president of global security for RIM, what are the key data security challenges facing your customers?

Scott Totzke: It's about the security and privacy of information as it leaves the enterprise and is stored on mobile devices. For a lot of our customers it's a question of control: who is in control of the data, how do you manage it and how do you cope with the eventuality of it being lost or stolen in the event of the device being lost or stolen? These things are personal computers now, not cell phones, and they're capable of storing tremendous amounts of information. I've got a 16GB Micro SD card in my device – that's a lot of information.

What specific functionality are enterprises looking for to ensure their mobiles are secure?

Enterprise customers are looking at whether they can audit the communications, if they're in a highly regulated industry. It could be important to audit email, text, MMS and have phone logs so you know who's talking to who and when. And when they deal with the eventuality of a lost or stolen device, they want to make sure the systems they deploy allow for the remote erasing of information. The table stakes in the mobile world are having a secure connection into the enterprise, base manageability of passwords, and the ability to remotely wipe data from lost devices.

Aside from employee error, where do the main risks lie?

A lot of discussions are emerging about what the other mobile threats are. There is a trend towards malicious software in the PC world and it's in the process of migrating to mobile devices, so there's a lot of discussion about how to manage the applications many users want to add to the device. Email is fine, but business transformation-type applications are where you can drive most value from your mobile device.

A financial services customer of ours developed a loan approvals application and within two months it had become business critical; so you have this computing platform, and internally developed applications sitting on top, and then users who want to deploy consumer or lifestyle apps, too. Customers therefore need to look at ways to manage and control what applications run on these devices – to set policies on what can be installed.

How far off is a serious threat from mobile malware?

Mobile malware is already here but two to three years down the road we will see more critical mass and a few very targeted [malicious] applications leading to the leaking of customer data. Proactive customers are already thinking about this. The economies of scale are already there for the malware writers, but only in the past couple of years has the smartphone platform become so robust and powerful and gotten any type of market penetration. However, we've seen a lot of fragmentation in the operating system market, with Apple's iPhone OS, WebOS, and Android all appearing, and this has been a delaying factor.

What are we likely to see from the malware authors?

As mobile payments become a reality, we'll probably see a lot of social engineering efforts targeted at compromising personal information such as credit card details. Another trend we can expect is malicious applications that will strive to exploit the trust that exists between a handset and network provider, or enterprise network. It opens up interesting possibilities for what could be done with a mobile botnet. Ten thousand infected devices on an infected carrier's service could cause a DOS outage.

Is too much information being stored by firms today?

As an industry, technology-wise, security-wise and privacy-wise we need to make sure the solutions we deploy protect our customers' information. The question needs to be asked: why do you need that information? As individuals we also need to question what information we need to provide and look closely at the privacy policies we're signing up to. As we build systems it becomes increasingly important on the IT side to determine why we are collecting information, how we're storing it, what the internal governance is around it and how we protect it. There have been way too many privacy breaches.

Visit our dedicated Summit web site for more breaking news, views, analysis and video on the topic of Information Overload.

Content management tools "barely being used"

Phil Muncaster — 2009-11-10T08:15:00.000Z

Phil Muncaster, V3.co.uk, Tuesday 10 November 2009 at 08:15:00

Open Text chief predicts more consolidation in ECM market

Enterprise content management (ECM) is still at an extremely early stage of maturity, with deployment of these technologies at a very low level among corporates, according to John Shackleton, chief executive and president of ECM giant Open Text.

Speaking exclusively to V3.co.uk at its inaugural summit event, Shackleton argued that despite his company's success as one of the biggest ECM players around – having acquired web content management vendor Red Dot and more recently Vignette – the firm is penetrating less than 20 per cent of the market.

He added that some technology vendors that have tried to enter the ECM space have done little to advance the industry, in areas such as streaming video.

"The problem with the ECM industry is not only is it immature but we've only penetrated less than 20 per cent and we're one of the biggest players – it's barely being used," said Shackleton.

"People like Oracle just don't understand it – they're still a relational database company, but a blob of video is not in any way relational. So the tech giants who could have jumped on this stuff haven't, for whatever reason."

Shackleton predicted that the market would continue to consolidate until there were between two and four massive players, and added that as smartphones become the main device users use to interact with ECM, telcos will try to enter this software market to differentiate.

Visit our dedicated Summit web site for breaking news, analysis and video on the topic of Information Overload.

Industry needs to come clean on cloud security

Phil Muncaster — 2009-11-10T08:00:00.000Z

Phil Muncaster, V3.co.uk, Tuesday 10 November 2009 at 08:00:00

Trend Micro CTO warns of widespread data theft

A leading security expert has warned of widespread data theft as more and more organisations move their information into the cloud, and urged firms to consider data encryption by key management as the only viable way to mitigate this risk.

Speaking to V3.co.uk as part of its Information Overload Summit, Dave Rand, chief technology officer of security vendor Trend Micro, argued that IT teams want to move to cloud computing because of the cost savings, but are currently put off by the lack of data protection assurance offered by any of the major cloud providers.

"Most cloud service providers don't have any data backup strategy; there are no adequate security measures recording who's accessing the data, and the reason is the effect on performance," he explained.

"In the next few years there will be a move towards controlling the data itself or keeping it secure by default – encrypting it by key management at the point of production and decrypting it at the point of consumption."

However, real-time data encryption and key management is no panacea, Rand warned, as it can be open to data being "snooped in-flight", and if organisations lose their keys, any data would be irretrievable.

"The IT security industry needs to own up and say it doesn't have all the answers – but with the emergence of the cloud we have to come to a conclusion," said Rand.

"Between now and widespread adoption we will see massive data theft occurring as people move into the cloud. There will be repeated issues of data going astray and when it occurs people will get fired and they will be yelling, and then they'll finally realise it's not just protecting the integrity of the system that matters but the data."

Howard Schmidt, president of the Information Security Forum and former White House cyber security adviser, argued that strong authentication, and encryption of data in transit and at rest are essential to securing cloud environments.

However, he said that most cloud providers are already listening to and working on customers' requests for this kind of functionality to be built into their environments.

Visit our dedicated Summit web site here for breaking news, analysis and video on the topic of Information Overload.

RIM woos developers with new apps

Iain Thomson in San Francisco — 2009-11-10T07:22:00.000Z

Iain Thomson in San Francisco, V3.co.uk, Tuesday 10 November 2009 at 07:22:00

Compatibility, advertising, geolocation and traffic APIs offered

Research in Motion (RIM) has announced a series of software applications for developers aimed at increasing the interoperability and finance of application development.

The company has built an advertising service, which will go live in the next 30 days, to let developers build both subscription and ad-based services into BlackBerry applications. It is also offering up APIs for location services based on cell tower triangulation and traffic prediction.

“If you make the platform more applicable to developers of any kind then the rising tide raises all boats,” Alan Panezic told V3.co.uk.

“Lot of enterprise customers are thinking about writing apps for other people who may have a BlackBerry. There's a natural cross pollination with developers.”

RIM is looking for the developer community to try and match the success of the Apple App Store and make the company more integrated into the business environment.

At today's keynote at the BlackBerry Developer's Conference 2009 in San Francisco Co-CEO Jim Balsillie showed of applications linking the handset to Oracle's middleware systems and also detailed the efforts to get Flash into the BlackBerry platform.

In addition developer tools for geolocation using mobile phone mast triangulation and traffic monitoring using a combination of the BlackBerry platform and US and Canadian transport department data.

RIM is also setting up academic program to provide course materials for developer training programmes at colleges and universities.

Koobface sets sights on Google Reader

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco — 2009-11-10T01:57:00.000Z

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco, V3.co.uk, Tuesday 10 November 2009 at 01:57:00

Accounts used to host attack videos

The notorious Koobface malware has begun using Google's Reader service to spread further.

Researchers say that the new attack uses spammed messages which send users to the compromised pages on the Reader service. When the user clicks on a fake video embedded in the page, traffic is diverted to another site which attempts to run a remote exploit and malware installation.

Trend Micro senior security adviser Rik Ferguson noted that the attacks provided a slight variation on the Koobface attacks which surfaced earlier this year. The company estimates that some 1,300 accounts have already been compromised.

"Cybercriminals are taking advantage of Google's credibility by hiding their malicious links behind Google Reader," Ferguson said.

"This is a new twist on the familiar Koobface infection routine where victims are asked to install Adobe Flash updates in order to view a video which appears to be shared on the Google Reader website."

The Koobface worm and its associated botnet have gained notoriety in security circles for its longevity and history of targeting social networking sites. First surfacing in 2008 within MySpace and Facebook, the worm later resurfaced in 2009, this time targeting Twitter users.

Nokia recalls 14 million phone chargers

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco — 2009-11-10T01:44:00.000Z

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco, V3.co.uk, Tuesday 10 November 2009 at 01:44:00

Shock fears lead to massive recall

Handset maker Nokia has kicked off a recall programme which is said to affect some 14 million customers.

The company said that the faulty chargers had been sold in two batches, one running between April 13 and Oct 25 and another sold between June 15 and August 9 of this year. Nokia said that the chargers were prone to losing part of the plastic casing and exposing components which could cause an electric shock.

The recall reportedly covers as many as 14 million handsets mainly in North America and Europe. So far no major injuries or damages related to the defective chargers have been reported.

Nokia has set up a site to allow users to check their chargers for the possible fault. The company said that the exchange process will be handled through local outlets in the affected regions.

Nokia's is the second major recall to hit the computing industry in recent weeks. In late October Sony issued a recall for 70,000 of its Vaio power adaptors which were said to pose a similar shock hazard.

Miliband outlines CCS timeline

Tom Young — 2009-11-10T00:15:00.000Z

Tom Young, BusinessGreen, Tuesday 10 November 2009 at 00:15:00

And he confirms that only Scottish Power and E.ON remain in CCS competition

The government today published a framework for decarbonising energy from coal setting out what it claims is the most environmentally ambitious set of coal conditions of any country in the world.

The announcement came alongside national policy statements on when new nuclear, gas and wind projects should be approved.

The government reaffirmed its commitment that no new coal-fired power stations will be built without carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, which buries carbon emissions underground.

The framework also includes guidance on carbon capture readiness – what power stations must do to prove they are able to fit carbon capture and storage at a later date.

Ed Miliband told the Commons today: "This is important because there is no solution to the problem of climate change without a solution to the problem of coal."

Also confirmed today is that the government has whittled down its flagship CCS competition to two bids – from E.ON at Kingsnorth and Scottish Power at Longannet, dropping a proposal from RWE npower.

But E.ON recently shelved plans to get Kingsnorth operational until later in the decade, meaning Longannet is expected by many experts to win.

Last week Professor Stuart Hazeldine, CCS expert at the University of Edinburgh, told BusinessGreen.com the competition was "dead in the water" and the prize should be awarded to Longannet "as soon as possible".

It is expected a decision will be made early next year with a view to the plant being operational by 2014.

The government will also fund between one and three further CCS demonstrator projects by 2016, including both pre-combustion and post-combustion capture technologies. The projects will be funded by a levy on energy bills.

It then hopes to have CCS ready for deployment on all coal-fired power stations from 2020 onwards.

A rolling review process, which is planned to report by 2018, will consider the case for new regulatory and financial measures to further drive the move to clean coal.

In the event that CCS is evidently not going to become a viable technology, the government will look again at an appropriate regulatory approach for reducing emissions from coal-fired power plants.

John Cridland, deputy director general of business group, said he welcomed the timeline on clean coal development, but urged haste.

“Next month’s Pre-Budget Report must confirm the government’s support for four clean-coal plants. This will need to be followed by a swift announcement stating which plants will get government support," he said.

Recession provides boost to blue chip's green investment

Cath Everett — 2009-11-10T00:15:00.000Z

Cath Everett, BusinessGreen, Tuesday 10 November 2009 at 00:15:00

Ernst & Young survey of multinational firms finds spending on low carbon technologies is rising as businesses seek to cut costs and manage climate risks

Far from quelling interest in clean technologies, the global recession has piqued blue chip firms' interest in investing in low carbon technologies and business models as they seek to identify opportunities to boost operational efficiency and reduce costs.

That is the conclusion of a major new study undertaken by professional services giant Ernst & Young, which surveyed 308 senior executives at global companies operating in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific, and found that clean tech expenditure has risen to an average of between three and five per cent of annual revenues.

Two-thirds of those questioned indicated that the adoption of clean technologies was now undertaken at an enterprise-wide level, and that such initiatives were championed by senior managers.

A further 85 per cent said that their organisations were either " significantly" or "moderately" accelerating their strategic response to climate change compared with two years ago. Most expected their companies to spend at least $10 (£5.95m) million on clean tech investments a year by 2010, with 22 per cent indicating that the figure would be closer to $100 million (£59.4m).

Gil Forer, global director of Cleantech at Ernst & Young, said that the growing interest of multi-billion dollar global companies in the clean tech arena underscored the increasing number of market opportunities available, and the tightening links between giant multinationals and innovative green start-ups.

"Making good on those [clean tech] opportunities will likely depend on identifying new partnership models that enable corporations and emerging clean tech companies to meet their own objectives while facilitating the arrival of a low-carbon and resource-efficient economy," he added.

A key driver behind increased expenditure on low carbon technologies are predictions that growing demand for finite natural resources such as oil will lead to potentially damaging price spikes.

These factors, Forer said, were "driving the need for corporations to establish a resource-efficiency agenda to ensure sustainable long-term growth and competitive advantage". This efficiency agenda was making itself most felt in areas of high energy consumption, such as manufacturing, transportation, logistics and IT systems, he added.