Optimistic

Optimistic

It’s only too easy to look around the world and feel a deep sense of pessimism.

Particularly around Climate Change, as the siren voices of the fossil fuel lobby seem to be getting louder.

We constantly hear the negative rhetoric from Reform (and Conservatives) about “ net stupid zero” and “we only produce 1% of global carbon, so what difference can we make” - it’s almost as if they are funded by big oil and gas - so what are the reasons it’s important for the little old Britain to continue to reduce its carbon ?

Firstly, contrary to the propaganda, renewable energy is actually cheaper than that produced by fossil fuels. The reason electricity prices remain stubbornly high is the market price is set by natural gas, until such time as we can dramatically reduce our dependency on it for electricity generation, by a combination of more renewables (and probably nuclear). The market price is set at the price to generate the last kWh (always from gas) rather than the actual bid price from the respective generators . Dale Vince from Ecotricity talked about this recently - there are ways to stop the practice - to dislocate gas from the electricity market - if we had the political will.

Secondly, renewables give us energy security, as we become less dependent on imported fossil fuels. Look what happened to electricity prices when Europe put sanctions on Russian gas, and the knock-on effect it had on British electricity prices.

Thirdly continually reducing our carbon allows us to take the “moral high ground” and lobby the rest of the G20 hard to follow our lead and reduce theirs. Continuing to drill our own oil only adds to the world’s carbon, and has no impact on our energy price, as it’s sold on the world market at the world market price, and is actually some of the highest priced oil. China added more renewables capacity last year than the rest of the world combined. The only major laggards are now the US and Russia.

Finally, building our renewables industry represents a phenomenal business and economic opportunity, particularly in our industrial wasteland’s, to become world leader, and not only fix the UK issue but export our technology and know-how to the rest of the world.

It’s not “stupid net zero” stupid, it’s “net zero sense”.

And we think some things are going in the right direction and there is a strong case for positive thinking

A make-or-break auction for the UK government’s goal to create a clean electricity system by 2030 has awarded subsidy contracts to enough offshore windfarms to power 12m homes.

In Great Britain’s most competitive auction for renewable subsidies to date, energy companies vied for contracts that guarantee the price for each unit of clean electricity they generate.

Contracts were awarded to eight new offshore farms after ministers doubled the amount of funding available to developers to help them produce projects worth £22bn.

The government expects the investment to support 7,000 skilled jobs, and has promised that its clean energy agenda would help to lower energy bills for good.

Green issues are not just about activists - the former CEO of Unilever is now committed to climate change. He summarised the recent COP summit well - The World Is Moving Forward on Climate Action Whether Countries Like It or Not

And yet Belém revealed another truth. If we judge COP30 only by the final communiqué, we miss the real story. The centre of gravity is shifting. Much of the most important progress is happening around the formal process and despite its limitations.

Under the Action Agenda, a non-negotiated process that mobilizes voluntary action, major actors—from businesses and investors to cities and civil society—set out investment plans totaling $1 trillion for clean energy and electricity grid expansion by 2030. Governments and donors backed over $9 billion for regenerative landscapes across more than 110 countries. The Tropical Forests Forever Facility, a new endowment-style fund, secured billions in initial public funding to protect forests, with at least 20% directed to Indigenous and local communities. More than $300 million was committed by a new climate and health funders coalition to strengthen climate-resilient health systems.

The Guardian have noticed Reform is so anti green

…Nigel Farage, has said it is “ridiculous” to refer to carbon dioxide as a pollutant and added: “I can’t tell you whether CO2 is leading to warming or not”. The party deputy, Richard Tice, has said it is “absolute garbage” to claim that human activity is the main cause of the climate crisis.

One of the myths is that China is pumping out greenhouse gasses so there is no point in us trying to reverse things.

ITV have the facts - China has become a renewables superpower

Having the ability to transform vast landscapes into green power plants has turbocharged China’s output from renewables. For the first time this year, the combined capacity of wind and solar overtook coal capacity, a target met five years ahead of schedule. The country’s emissions fell by one percent, a small but significant turnaround for the world’s biggest polluter.

In another first, China became the only country in the world to have one million megawatts of installed solar power and nowhere else is close to reaching that capacity.

So at the global lever people are trying and seeing results

But some of the tech experimentation does not seem sensible. This article looks at the oceans - where people are trying things without any regulation.

What can we do?

Keeping an eye on your footsteps is a great way to keep this top of mind

My Footsteps for last week - the Heating on overtime but we have reduced the hours - and wearing wooly jumpers - it’s sweater weather

Eating ✅✅❌✅✅❌✅

Travel ✅❌✅✅❌✅❌

Heating ✅✅❌❌❌❌❌

Consumption ✅❌✅❌✅✅✅

How is it going with you? Share your tips with us - just hit reply. No problem if you don’t want us to use your name.

On the food tip this Guardian story is sobering

Hard to digest: we still live in Fast Food Nation - Guardian

Twenty-five years after I revealed the practices of the industrial food giants, the profits – and dangers – of mass producing meat and milk have only grown

Reducing plastic use is possible, but it’s not easy - Guardian

The plastic inside us: how microplastics may be reshaping our bodies and minds - Guardian

One of the negative stories around the switch to electric cars is about batteries - we have a deep dive on batteries - read it here

If you do one thing…….