We need more batteries – or, as today’s piece on the Climate Action website makes clear, the rapid expansion of batteries will be crucial to meet the climate and energy security goals set at COP28: After their deployment in the power sector more than doubled last year, batteries need to lead a sixfold increase in global… Read More »How to make more electric batteries – and how to make them more sustainable
There’s been a bit of a fracas over the climate, as Mark Jenkinson MP hits out at ‘spoilt climate clowns’ – or Just Stop Oil protesters who targeted his office. Although a piece this week from the London Metro News reporting on a climate change map showing which UK areas could be under water by 2050 leads on these same… Read More »How prepared are we for climate chaos?
This year’s Earth Day 2024 on 22nd April focusses on Planet vs Plastics – and yet the importance of reducing our carbon footprint has become the centre of the Earth Day project, as it endeavours to raise awareness about environmental issues. Our plastic footprint and our carbon footprint come together in an event on Monday 22nd April in Sidmouth –… Read More »Earth Day 2024: 22nd April: gifting “Rosa’s Footprint”
We have just learnt that March 2024 is the 10th consecutive month to break temperature records. The European Court of Human Rights has just declared that the Swiss government’s inaction on climate change has violated the human rights of its citizens – a decision which the British Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero isn’t… Read More »Do governments have a duty to protect people from climate change?
How would the Sid Valley generate its own power? There are different ways to do large-scale stretches of solar panels: covering roofs and creating solar farms are the most obvious – and both have been in the news lately. SOLAR ROOFS Shopping centre bosses have been given the green light to cover its buildings with… Read More »Solar roofs and solar farms in the news
Whilst some commentators consider that net zero has exposed the shocking neglect of rural Britain, others are looking to practical ways of heating rural homes and achieving net zero. And as we look to the general election, the Rural Services Network looks to how politicians can go about Achieving Net Zero in Rural Communities. Here’s a pretty impressive… Read More »Getting to rural net zero
Heat pumps are again in the news, with grants having just been extended to more homes as the ‘boiler tax’ is delayed by the government, as reported in the This is Money website – which also gives a very handy overview of the changes. The problem with heat pumps is that most of us are very unaware… Read More »A good look at heat pumps
It is possible to progress from eco-anxiety to eco-action – to go from despair and paralysis to just getting on with it. And it’s especially important to engage youngsters on the issues around the climate and environment – as mental illness is on the increase in young people here in Sidmouth. So, how can we stay sane in the climate crisis? The… Read More »How to stay sane: care, collective action and counterbalance
This is quite a good news story: Global energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions rose less strongly in 2023 than the year before, even as total energy demand growth accelerated, new IEA analysis shows, with continued expansion of solar PV, wind, nuclear power and electric cars helping the world avoid greater use of fossil fuels. The… Read More »Good news: The growth in renewables limits global emissions
How much will ‘doing things to stop climate change’ cost us? Simon Evans writing in the Guardian last September noted how a thinktank got the cost of net zero for the UK wildly wrong – and that Civitas’s deeply flawed report was timed to follow the PM’s speech in which he called for an ‘honest approach’ to… Read More »How much will climate change cost us?