Cities have the potential to store vast amounts of carbon, according to a new study. National Geographic reports on the work of Galina Churkina of the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research in Germany:

Churkina and colleagues pulled together previous evidence looking at various stores of organic carbon—carbon that comes from living things, as well as from such as plants and animals, wood, dirt, and even garbage.
Cities—including both dense metropolises and sprawling suburbs—store about a tenth of all the carbon in U.S. ecosystems, the study estimated.
In total, U.S. cities contain about 20 billion tons of organic carbon, mostly in dirt, according to the new study to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Global Change Biology.

Many cities have already launched ambitious plans for turning gray to green, such as Los Angeles' Million Trees LA project, which aims to plant a million trees in the Californian city over several years.

Building timber instead of concrete houses could also help to sequester carbon, said Leif Gustavsson, an expert on green technology at Mid Sweden University. But he said the main carbon benefit is from the embodied energy of the construction itself, rather than carbon stored in the material.                                     

Meanwhile, earth scientist David Pataki of the University of California stressed that getting urban soils to store more carbon would be a careful balancing act. "Managing urban soils to store more carbon can use energy, and those fossil fuel emissions have to be taken into account," he told National Geographic.

Earlier this summer SEI announced that, from December, external wall insulation systems must have Irish Agrément certification to be eligible for support under the Home Energy Saving scheme. But many in the green building sector are critical of the decision, and some are questioning the value and purpose of Agrément. Lenny Antonelli reports.

A new public park on the northside of Dublin combines wind power and sustainable water management with environmentally sound materials and strategies to boost biodiversity, making it a standard-bearer in urban design. Lenny Antonelli visited the site

In the first installment of a new feature on international green buildings, Lenny Antonelli takes a look at five innovative, sustainable and striking buildings from around the world.

Green Building isn't a fad. The Top 100 (green contractors) generated $38.69 billion in revenue in 2008 from projects registered with or certified by third-party rating groups under objective environmental or sustainable development standards. This marks a startling 70% [increase from] $22.76 billion [in revenue generated] for the group in 2007.  Green Building Law Update

The Jevons paradox: How energy efficiency improvements could be undermining sustainability: Green Building Advisor

How do internal and external finishes effect energy performance? Green Building Advisor

Talking Head David Byne's vision of a perfect city: Wall Street Journal

The Green Jobs initiative, which is designed to provide upfront financing for energy-efficiency retrofits to both homeowners and businesses, is similar to programs already offered by other jurisdictions, including municipalities in California, Colorado, and Virginia, and the city of Babylon, New York, on Long Island. Even in the U.K., the city of London is trying to address the energy inefficiencies in its aging housing stock by offering homeowners subsidies for weatherization improvements.

The loans will be administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, which focuses primarily on the reduction of petroleum consumption but also on research into the environmental effects of energy consumption, the development of renewable resources, and other technology innovations. The loan limit for each residential customer is $13,000, and $26,000 for each business. Loan costs will be added to participants’ monthly energy bills, although the energy savings from each retrofit – which should reduce usage by 30% to 40% – is expected to be larger than the loan payment

We're busy at work on the next issue of Construct Ireland, which is due out in early September, so blogging might be a bit thin over the next week or two.

But for now, here's a few interesting stories worth checking out: 

Australian scientists develop world's solar cell (apparently): Inhabitat

The world's tallest timber building planned - but will it sequester carbon? Treehugger 

Guide to eco-friendly furniture:  Green Building Advisor

Demystifying green roofs: Green Building Law Update 

Isle of Islay to be powered by the tide? Guardian 

Hemcrete hits North America: Inhabitat 

The Pay As You Save (PAYS) concept that we at Construct Ireland have been promoting - the idea of providing up front financing for low energy refurbs and charging householders over time on their utility bills - has been gaining popularity, as I blogged about recently (here and here). 

Now the New York State Senate has passed a law that will enable homeowners to avail of energy upgrade loans that they can repay over time on their energy bills. It's a bit different to the PAYS concept we're promoting, which would involve a repayment tariff attached to a household bill rather than a loan attached to a individual bill-payer. But the general idea is the same. 

Richard Defendorf writes on GreenBuildingAdvisor.com: 

The Green Jobs initiative, which is designed to provide upfront financing for energy-efficiency retrofits to both homeowners and businesses, is similar to programs already offered by other jurisdictions, including municipalities in California, Colorado, and Virginia, and the city of Babylon, New York, on Long Island. Even in the U.K., the city of London is trying to address the energy inefficiencies in its aging housing stock by offering homeowners subsidies for weatherization improvements.

The initiative will be financed  through the sale of carbon emission credits under a local cap-and-trade initiative for power plants. 

Defendorf explained how the programme will work: 

The loans will be administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, which focuses primarily on the reduction of petroleum consumption but also on research into the environmental effects of energy consumption, the development of renewable resources, and other technology innovations. The loan limit for each residential customer is $13,000, and $26,000 for each business. Loan costs will be added to participants’ monthly energy bills, although the energy savings from each retrofit – which should reduce usage by 30% to 40% – is expected to be larger than the loan payment.

In the latest installment of his excellent Greenwash column, the Guardian's Fred Pearce asks whether a wind farm could result in more carbon emissions than a coal-fired power station. Referring to a proposed 187 square kilometre wind farm on the Shetland Islands - potentially the largest in Europe - Pearce writes:

More than half of the wind turbines in Scotland are on highland peat. This is not sensible. Scottish peat bogs hold three-quarters of all the carbon in British ecosystems – equivalent to around a century of emissions from fossil fuel burning.

Apart from water, peat bogs are largely composed of huge volumes of saturated, undecayed plants. A single hectare typically contains more than 5000 tonnes of carbon, ten times more than a typical hectare of forest. But any disturbance leads to lower water levels and to the peat drying, oxidising and releasing its carbon, says biochemist Mike Hall of the Cumbria Wildlife Trust.
The bog can decompose for hundreds of metres round every turbine, potentially releasing millions of tonnes of carbon. The process is slow, but frequently unstoppable, Hall says. So many wind farms may eventually emit more carbon than an equivalent coal-fired power station.

This poses the questions - considering so much talk of expanding wind power in Ireland has centred on our boggy west coast, and considering Bord Na Mona's plans to become a major player in the wind sector, has any analysis been carried out of the potential for wind farm development to release large quantities of carbon from Irish bogs? Will this be considered on a case-by-case basis for wind farms proposed in boggy areas?