* Roll up for the environmental 'auction floor'

John Vidal
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 11 March 2009 00.05 GMT


Buy a bright idea

Found a spare million euros down the back of the sofa and fancy supporting a worthwhile green cause? The European commission wants to hear from you. With too many problems in the world and not enough money, the EC plans a Dragons' Den-style event in Brussels on Friday, where project organisers can pitch for cash. The environmental "auction floor" conference will showcase almost 100 proposals for EC grants that were rated highly but were refused "simply due to budget limitations". Potential donors – countries, private funds, foundations and others – can choose from biodiversity initiatives and efforts to promote clean energy and protect forests. Roll up, roll up!

Pile 'em high
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which has billions of pounds to clean up nuclear waste but has no brief to support or oppose nuclear energy, is using some pretty perverse logic these days. Last week, Richard Mrowicki, head of strategy and business planning, claimed that building new nuclear plants on the sites of existing ones would reduce decommissioning costs because the sites of ageing reactors will not have to be returned to greenfield status. Come again, Richard? Surely if you build more reactors it will increase the radioactive waste stockpile, which you – or someone else – will have to clean up?