Sea

The first global system to monitor the movement of the world’s water and better prepare for floods and droughts is being developed. Scientists at the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) are working on the Hydrological Status and Outlook System (HydroSOS) – a modelling and reporting tool to warn governments, aid agencies and populations affected by climate […]

Environment Secretary Michael Gove has pledged action to reduce the plastic waste choking the world’s seas. Around eight million tonnes of plastic ends up in oceans every year, posing a serious threat to the wildlife and ecosystems there – experts estimate plastic waste is often eaten by 31 species of marine mammals and more than […]

A solar powered structure that could make sea water drinkable has been designed. Khalili Engineers have submitted initial designs of ‘The Pipe’ to the 2016 Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) in Santa Monica. The cigar-shaped structure would sit offshore, using the 10,000MWh generated by its solar panels to make 4.5 billion litres of drinking water from the sea. […]

A project investigating the enviornmental effects of a leak from a subsea carbon capture and storage (CCS) system in Scotland found it had “little impact” on sea life. Results from the Scottish Association for Marine Science’s (SAMS) experiment in collaboration with other UK institutions, which started in 2012, were recently published in a scientific journal. CCS […]

Europe’s seas remain unsustainable and threatens its productivity and wellbeing. That’s according to a new report from the European Environment Agency (EEA), which also said human activities and climate change are “increasingly” affecting its marine ecosystems. “Hazardous substances are widespread in the marine environment”, stated the EEA and added they can accumulate through the marine food chain and […]

The European Commission has granted €17million (£13m) in funding for wave power research. The five-year project called ‘Clean Energy from Ocean Waves’ (CEFOW) will look at testing and developing a wave energy converter. The test will be carried out at Wave Hub, the test centre in Cornwall and run by wave power developers Fortum. Heli […]

An ambitious programme of insulating buildings and producing more energy directly from buildings could save the UK around £12 billion every year until 2050. That’s the conclusion of a new report published by industry group Sustainable Energy Association (SEA), which represents a number of energy efficiency and technology providers. The figure would be equivalent to […]

The EU has unveiled a new plan to increase the development of ocean energy, which it claims could help create up to 20,000 jobs by 2035 in the UK alone. Also called “blue energy”, it covers all renewable energy at sea, including, wave and tidal but excluding offshore wind. The plan includes the establishment of […]

Drilling activity in the North Sea dropped by 43% for the first six months of the year compared to the same period in 2010 with less than a third of new wells drilled. Analysts at Deloitte’s Petroleum Services Group said activity was lower than would be expected during a time when the oil price averaged […]

The Government today announced that North Sea oil and gas firms would receive tax support for those operating smaller, less profitable fields. The announcement follows an earlier tax increase that had some some in the industry worried about about the future of the nation’s energy supply. The annual rate of the Ring Fence Expenditure Supplement […]