The world’s green energy transition, which is essential to achieving net-zero emissions and halting climate change, is under threat, as a financial era of rising interest rates has made some projects, like new offshore wind farms, unaffordable.
Estimates suggest that Europe must now find an additional €163 billion to reach net-zero by 2050, with figures likely to be similar elsewhere in the world. As such, firms are pulling back from new projects.
Last week, Swedish energy firm Vattenfall announced it would stop work on an offshore wind farm in the UK’s North Sea, warning development costs for the Norfolk Boreas scheme had increased by 40 per cent due to rising interest rates and supply chain costs.
Rising interest rates have made the green energy transition more expensive.
Company behind Devon venture hopes it will become a blueprint for projects owned by consumers
A solar power plant. A ‘shared’ solar park is an option for households who cannot afford solar panels or who do not own their home. Photograph: Fuyu Liu/Shutterstock
If you would love to have solar panels but don’t own your home or can’t afford the outlay, how about investing in Britain’s first “shared” solar park that is promising cheaper, zero-carbon electricity, direct to your energy bills for the next 40 years?
With two successful community energy schemes already behind it, Ripple Energy is looking for investors for its third: the construction of a 42MW solar park in Derril Water in Devon, not far from the Cornish town of Bude.
Once up and running in the summer of 2024, the project, which is being built by one of the world’s largest independent renewable energy companies, RES, will produce enough electricity to power 14,000 homes across Britain.
Group says forcing polluters to store carbon dioxide underground is needed to help world reach net zero
Fossil fuel companies should be forced to “take back” the carbon dioxide emitted from their products, handing them direct responsibility for cleaning up the climate, a group of scientists has argued.
The principle that the producer of pollution should pay for its clean-up is established around the world, but has never been applied to the climate crisis.
An oil rig in Invergordon, Scotland. Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA
This firm is committed to advising clients on better outcomes for the planet. As an example, 20% of funds that we advise on are alternative energy investments.
Our clients, with millions invested in clean energy, are making a real contribution.
Some other funds we support: – Developing better engineering solutions, such as medical devices and prosthetic limbs. – Technology that saves energy by stopping the cold escaping from freezer cabinets in supermarkets. Software solutions to manage risk. – Financing childcare facilities, GP practices ambulances and better care homes.
Britain claims to be at the forefront of the fight against climate change and our scientists and engineers are trusted to provide solutions; your savings and pension pots can make a difference for your children and grandchildren.
Alternative Energy – facts.
The sector offers a range of funds to either provide capital growth, by investing in new developments, windfarms, solar, hydro, anaerobic digestion. Or income generated by buying into long term income contracts, usually 30 years.
Examples of Alternate Energy investments; One provides money to build has returned 84.17% since its launch in June 2019 The other is an income fund gaining profit from long term energy contracts and returned 101,92% since December 2017. NOTE: These are no guarantee of future returns
Coal and gas generation is increasing in cost whilst solar is substantially cheaper. The economic argument for solar is strong.
Source: IEA estimates. Data sourced 30.06.2022, * Refers to same regions within the figure: Europe, United States, China, and India
Green home upgrades could also create 140,000 new jobs by 2030, analysis by Cambridge Econometric finds
Greenpeace urged Kwarteng to devote £7bn to insulation and heat pump installations over the next two years. Photograph: Andrew Aitchison/Alamy
Insulating homes in Britain and installing heat pumps could benefit the economy by £7bn a year and create 140,000 new jobs by 2030, research has found.
But the uptake of these energy-saving measures depends heavily on government policy, according to analysis by Cambridge Econometrics, commissioned by Greenpeace.
Read more … https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/20/energy-saving-measures-could-boost-uk-economy-by-7bn-a-year-study-says
António Guterres said money raised should be diverted to vulnerable nations suffering losses caused by climate crisis
Countries should impose windfall taxes on fossil fuel companies and divert the money to vulnerable nations suffering worsening losses from the climate crisis, the United Nations secretary general has urged.
António Guterres said that “polluters must pay” for the escalating damage caused by heatwaves, floods, drought and other climate impacts, and demanded that it was “high time to put fossil fuel producers, investors and enablers on notice”.
Read more . . https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/20/un-secretary-general-tax-fossil-fuel-companies-climate-crisis
Peat bogs are an important carbon store, so mushroom growers are searching for a way to grow their produce on other substrates
In a huge industrial shed on Leckford Estate, a farm owned by the supermarket Waitrose in a beautiful part of southern England, a revolution is stirring in the world of mushroom growing. UK production of this crop relies on peat, the incredibly carbon-rich organic matter found in bogs and fens across the country. Peatland contains so much carbon, it is sometimes described as “the UK’s rainforests”. That is why the UK government has promised to restore 280,000 hectares of peatland in England alone by 2050, to help meet its climate change goals.
When new energy security strategies for Europe arrive, it is essential that they align with climate change goals. False solutions abound, such as kick-starting a UK fracking industry, even though that has already been tried without success.
Thankfully, the answers are already clear. Wind and solar power should be turbocharged, and ideological barriers such as vetoes for onshore turbines in England must be lifted. More electricity links are required between countries, like the UK-Denmark one due to be finished next year. Energy efficiency needs serious government support, and electrification of cars and heating must be accelerated. And, yes, some mix of nuclear power, more energy storage or carbon-capture power stations will be required to support renewables when the sun isn’t shining.
Individuals can’t solve the climate or energy crises on their own, but there are things homeowners can do to help. People on lower incomes need support to cope with high energy prices. But for those able to pay, there has never been a better time to “repair” that roof, with proper insulation and solar panels. Winter is sooner than you think. Let’s seize the opportunity to make sure we weather it.
Caroline Dennett tells staff in video she made decision because of ‘double-talk on climate’
A senior safety consultant has quit working with Shell after 11 years, accusing the fossil fuel producer in a bombshell public video of causing “extreme harms” to the environment.
Caroline Dennett claimed Shell had a “disregard for climate change risks” and urged others in the oil and gas industry to “walk away while there’s still time”.
The executive, who works for the independent agency Clout, ended her working relationship with Shell in an open letter to its executives and 1,400 employees. In an accompanying video, posted on LinkedIn, she said she had quit because of Shell’s “double-talk on climate”.
Environmental campaigners are suing the Dutch airline KLM over “greenwashing” adverts they say misleadingly promote the sustainability of flying.
Lawyers from ClientEarth are supporting Fossielvrij NL, a Netherlands-based campaign group, to bring a claim that KLM’s ad campaigns give a false impression of the sustainability of its flights and its plans to address its impact on the climate.
“KLM’s marketing misleads consumers into believing that its flights won’t worsen the climate emergency. But this is a myth,” said Hiske Arts, a campaigner at Fossielvrij NL.
“Unchecked flying is one of the fastest ways to heat up the planet. Customers need to be informed and protected from claims that suggest otherwise.”
Activists from Fossielvrij NL submitted a pre-action letter to Air France KLM, KLM’s parent company, during its AGM in Paris on Tuesday. Their legal action takes aim at KLM’s “Fly Responsibly” campaign, which presents the airline as “creating a more sustainable future”.
The system of executive pay is “broken”, the Church of England’s pension board has said, as it challenged more companies to ease the pain of soaring inflation by committing to paying workers the living wage.
Kalasatama, a former cargo port in Finland’s capital, is acting as a test bed for new ideas that could help the city reach a goal of zero carbon emissions by 2040
A neighbourhood in the shadow of a coal power station on the outskirts of Helsinki, Finland, might seem an unlikely place to envangelise about its environmental credentials. But here in the former cargo port of Kalasatama, a 31-year mega project is under way to build a model green urban district that should eventually be home to 30,000 people. About 9000 have already moved in. “It’s getting better and better by the day,” says Hetta Huittinen-Naskali, who has lived in Kalasatama for four years. “What I like is that there are always people moving around.” For her, that means walking, the city’s popular bike-hire scheme, the metro and, in her husband’s case, a car too. The neighbourhood is billed by city authorities as a test bed for new ideas that might be rolled out to the rest of the capital: last year saw a driverless bus pilot project and robots delivering food to older residents. Perhaps most importantly, the area is grappling with ways to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels to meet Helsinki’s goal of absolutely zero carbon emissions by 2040.
