UK highlights – clean energy, green growth and climate science
London is set to host the Clean Energy Ministerial amid debate in UK politics over the direction of green policy and the cost of environmental measures to families and businesses. The Coalition Government has made announcements on fracking, investment in climate science, the green deal and EU emissions targets, and MPs have called on the government for greater clarity on the “outsourcing” of carbon emissions abroad.
UK news – science & innovation
In his Autumn Forecast Statement, delivered November 29, Chancellor George Osborne pledged an additional £200 million for science infrastructure and heralded the Government’s Innovation and Research Strategy and Life Science Strategy which have since been published. This week, University and Science Minister, David Willetts, is visiting the U.S. to strengthen UK-U.S. links on education, science and research.
Weekly highlights of U.S. Government news
Please allow me to introduce myself, Michael Wautlet, the new Environment, Science, Technology, and Health (ESTH) Officer at the U.S. Embassy in London. I encourage all of our readers to post comments and ask questions about blog posts, announcements, or events related to ESTH topics.
Climate Change. Today’s “U.S. Government highlights” cover a range of issues from the past two weeks. I begin with the 17th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Durban, South Africa. Jonathan Pershing, the Deputy Special Envoy for Climate Change at the U.S. Department of State and head of the U.S. delegation for the first week of the Read more 
FCO and BIS Release their Science and Innovation Network Report: April 2010 to March 2011
On September 29, FCO and BIS co-hosted a lunchtime briefing for science attaches on the release of the new FCO/BIS “Science and Innovation Report: April 2010 to March 2011.” Speakers included FCO Science Advisor Dr. David Clary, BIS Director General for Science Dr. Adrian Smith, and Hugh Philpott, Head of the Science and Innovation Network (SIN). The presentation provided a very helpful overview of the work of the SIN Network in the 25 countries and territories in which it operates. In the U.S., they include officers at the UK Embassy in Washington D.C. and at UK Consulate-Generals in Boston, Houston, Atlanta, San Francisco and Los Angeles. For more details on specific collaborative activities, see the report itself. Also, very helpfully, the report includes at the end of the document the contact information for all SIN officers around the world.
Weekly highlights of U.S. government news
Every Tuesday, we aim to provide quick highlights of some of the U.S. Government’s announcements from the last week. Each week, we’ll try to pick a mix of topical and interesting stories from a wide range of Departments and Agencies, providing a view into the full array of ESTH efforts under way. This week includes announcements from the Department of Energy, NASA, Environmental Protection Agency, State Department, and the White House. Read more