Fascinating article from Tim Harford on whether Wright's Law or Moore's Law is the determining factor in the prices of new technology. If it's Wright's Law, we could have had a green transition years ago.
So Luleå, Sweden will get a cool new fossil-free steel plant instead of Raahe, Finland from SSAB. A bummer, but as many news outlets have pointed out not surprising. First, the Swedish government who owns SSAB will have more say in Luleå. Second, the plant in Raahe is decidedly more modern so revamping it makes less sense. Third, the current Finnish government tries its best to hinder #GreenTransition projects and then cries foul when big investments for such transitions go elsewhere.
“It’s not green, it’s greed. Global warming is a serious problem and we cannot continue burning #fossilfuels, but destroying mountains for lithium is just as bad as destroying mountains for coal. You can’t blow up a mountain and call it green.”
#Barroso is the only region in #Portugal – and one of only eight in Europe – recognised by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System of outstanding landscapes that combine agricultural biodiversity, resilient ecosystems and a valuable cultural heritage.
One of the key elements of the green transition must be finding ways to not only shift to public transport, but to also find more efficient (less polluting) ways of using private transport when (for whatever reason) non-collective transport is required.
So, its really disappointing that the UK's experiments in car share clubs (just when they are becoming ever more vital) are undermined by a lack of available insurance cover;
While #politicians argue about how & if we might undergo a #greentransition some people are just getting on with it.
A new report from the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit suggest the UK's #netzero economy grew by nearly 10% in 2023, while also providing well paid & productive employment for #workers.
While good news this will confirm to some on the right that the #privatesector can get on without state aid... but Green Keynsianism would accelerate this further!
"#China is at heightened risk of missing its #climate targets and suffering major economic losses unless it takes decisive actions to put a halt to runaway coal power plant expansion and reform outdated power grid management, new research has found."
[Edit to add} But the country's clean energy boom may just help it reach its 2030 goals, see in-depth piece linked in reply.
If #CarbonCredits are part of the mechanism for 'encouraging' a #GreenTransition then they need to be expensive enough to lead firms to identify cleaner alternatives.... however, the UK's policy of being free & easy with the provision of CCs has led to yet another drop in price.
Its pretty simple economics, you increase the supply, the price drops... but in this case the consequence is yet more 'legitimate' #emissions & less incentive to change.
'The stripping of Earth’s natural materials is already responsible for 60% of global heating impacts, including land use change, 40% of air pollution impact & more than 90% of global water stress and land-related biodiversity loss'!
'The global extraction of raw materials is expected to increase by 60% by 2060, with calamitous consequences for the climate and the environment'!
This is what a failure to invest in & support #publictransport looks like.
Across the UK #cities fail to reach the accessibility level for #urban#community by public transport that are achieved across the rest of #Europe.
Once again it needs to be stressedL there cannot be a fully effective #greentransition without significant and wide-spread investment in public transport.
We need to recognise its value & its contribution to responding to #climatechange!
Nina Djukanovic #GreenTransition and #DigitalTransition. Rio Tinto discovered a large réservé of lithium in Serbia. Mining was supposed to start in January last year. But Resistance blocked the project from happening. After months of massive protests, the government cancelled the mining permit in January 2022.
Last week the Serbian government announced they would like to reopen negotiations with Rio Tinto.
this is good news in the face of the relatively failure of #COP28 & associated global leaders' shilly-shallying about the #greentransition away from #fossilfuels.
Perhaps states are pragmatically getting on with putting in place the conditions for the uptake of #GreenEnergy?
We can hope this will be soon enough to make a difference but without too much confidence it now can quickly
Here's the FT's diagram of how the #EU's new Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism will work.
This is intended to reduce emissions (by costing them in) for both in-EU production & imports; its a classic economic model for costing negative externalities.
The Q. is how will it effect #trade flows into the block - some analysts think it will further fragment & regionalise the global economy.
But of course any #greentransition wiill have structural effects; the issue will be how they are mitigated?
After the #fossilfuels friendly #COP28 was engineered to be short on firm commitments & long on pious #oil industry-friendly 'aspirations'... the news that #COP29 in #Baku will be chaired by (another) oil industry veteran, should finally put paid to the idea that we can expect a radical & accelerated #greentransition through this process.
Time ran out a while back to follow the oil industry's gradualism - our political generation is just fiddling while the planet burns!
Interestingly, the number of #offshorewind turbines passed the number of offshore #oil facilities last year.... of course, its just a simple bit of data, but somehow encourages me nonetheless.
Rich countries are developing a #green protectionism. 'Many trade rules forbid policies that can be used by developing countries... Developing countries see a lot of these [green] policies as protectionist. They don’t have the fiscal space to go the path of subsidies, so they have to go the path of restrictions to trade or even duties or taxes'.
#Sweden#GreenColonialism#GreenTransition#FossilFuels#Decarbonization: "Across Kiruna’s region of Norrbotten, companies have staked claims here for pioneering new carbon-free ways to mine iron and make steel. They also want to dig up a rich treasure trove of rare earth elements and precious metals to help power our mobile phones and electric cars. In 2021, the region even became the prospective locale for a drastic intervention that could bring down global temperatures but could also cause cataclysmic disaster — a proposal to dim the sun.
Ebba Busch, Sweden’s deputy prime minister and minister for business and energy, believes northern Sweden could help reduce the speed at which the world is heating up. “Sweden really has the answer to the million-dollar question of whether it’s possible to have very high set climate goals and then at the same time have a strong economic growth,” Busch told me. “The Swedish answer to that is yes.”
There’s a prevailing sense in Kiruna that swathes of this beautiful, resource-laden land should be turned over to industry — sacrificed on the altar of a green transition in order to phase out fossil fuels. But for the region’s residents, the tradeoffs are more complex than simply embracing a more sustainable future.
Environmentalists, Indigenous groups and academics say that what politicians and energy executives are really advocating for is a technofix for the climate crisis: simply trading out one extractive industry for another without challenging the systems that got us here in the first place. And it could bring untold collateral damage upon one of nature’s last refuges in Europe (...)
In reporting this story, I met climate scientists, mining executives, Sami leaders and Swedish politicians. Among them, I found no absolute heroes or true villains. Everyone was searingly aware that the climate is in danger, but each person had drastically different ideas about how to fix it.
Well, this is what happens when you put so-called 'fiscal probity' before everything else.... #KeirStarmer & #RachelReeves are apparently now 'considering' dealing back on their #green investment fund...
When immediate fiscal profiling is seen as more important than seeking ways to address the #climatecrisis by funding a #greentransition, you know that this generation of leaders is less concerned about future generations & more worried about the #Tory press
If the #nuclear industry retail thinks it can be part of the #greentransition, then the Guardian's ongoing revelations about #Sellafield suggest they need to put their house in order.
Of course, for many this will merely confirm exactly why Nuclear cannot be regarded as a safe component of any #greenenergy strategy.... you don't get these sort of problems with #wind & #solar (which is not to say they have no problems of their own, but they're less critical).
Loss and damage is one of those #Climate phrases that quickly loses power, like "collateral damage"
This week @thecontinent gives it new meaning with reporting from #Somalia where a drought that killed tens of thousands has been replaced by floods.
Relatedly, DRC will soon have what the continent calls (justifiably) 'An election in the most important country on the planet'