The world faces an urgent climate crisis. There is no time to lose. However, the UK general election has produced no winner and, at the time of writing, it is still not clear who will form the next government.
read more »The manifestos of the three main UK political parties, Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat, all agree that climate change is an extremely serious issue and that tackling it can be done in ways which enhance energy security and strengthen the UK economy.
read more »This month has seen two significant developments in plans to harness the power of the waves and the tides off the British Isles. On 2 March 2010, the Regional Development Agency for the South West of England announced the start of the construction of an onshore electricity sub-station at Hayle in Cornwall, so that power from its Wave Hub – a facility to test wave technology ten miles off the Cornish coast – can be fed into the electricity grid. And this week, the Crown Estate, the body that administers over half of the UK’s foreshore and all the seabed out to 12 miles, announced the successful bidders in the world’s first commercial wave and tidal leasing round, for ten sites in Scotland’s Pentland Firth and Orkney waters.
read more »This week, the 25km cable to connect the Wave Hub to the grid – effectively a giant socket into which wave machines can be plugged – is due to be laid.
read more »On Wednesday and Thursday, I attended a conference on renewable energy in Scotland, on the stunningly beautiful island Skye. I talked about how to dispel myths about climate change and renewables.
read more »The Copenhagen Climate Summit starts today. Prospects are looking better than they were a few weeks ago and the fact that President Obama has decided to attend the final negotiating session, rather than just for a token visit at the start, is excellent.
read more »It isn’t often worth commenting on the fact that an agreement has been signed. Too many politicians make too many promises about what they plan to do in the future. However, a co-operation agreement between the US, the world’s top polluter, and Iceland, the world leader on geothermal energy use, is an exception.
read more »Yesterday, the G8 countries promised to cut their greenhouse emissions by 80% by 2050, and to limit global warming to no more than two degrees centigrade. This is better than nothing but less than is needed.
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There are several myths or misunderstandings that have grown up surrounding climate change and renewable energy. Both sides of the debate can be at fault. This article tries to debunk some of nonsense that is often cited as fact.
read more »The Committee on Climate Change sensibly calls for an ‘all of the above’ approach to decarbonisation.
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