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Scottish oil refinery could be turned into hub for green chemicals
Scotland’s first minister says Grangemouth could become world leader in green fuels
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CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » This site
Dealing with Climate Change & Justice
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Posted 1 week ago #
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Greenpeace must pay hundreds of millions over Dakota pipeline protests, says jury
Non-profit said in statement lawsuits like this aimed at ‘destroying the right to peaceful protest’
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/greenpeace-lawsuit-energy-transfer-dakota-pipeline
Posted 1 week ago # -
Good piece by Lesley Riddoch on the Cowal Community Energy wind farm bid.
THE Cowal Community Energy group – recently rejected by Forestry Land Scotland (FLS) from taking on the lease to run a large-scale wind farm – aims to take over the land it sits on instead. Bravo.
It’s a shame neither the Scottish Government nor FLS encouraged this community wind farm bid in the first place. But the ball is now in the Scottish Government’s court. Will they let the asset transfer go ahead so the trust representing 80% of the Cowal peninsula population can earn some big bucks – perhaps £1 million per annum – as a landowner?
It would be the right thing to do now – but let’s be clear, it’s the second-best option.
Winning the lease to run Cruach Mhor would have earned Cowal locals £3 million per year. But if the asset transfer doesn’t go ahead, they’ll get nowt but community benefit from the winning company – about £56,000 per year. That’s a very big difference.
And the Scottish Government could reframe this situation in favour of communities right now. But will they?
There are a lot of warm words about the importance of community but if wind farm tenders aren’t “community-shaped” as they come up for “repowering” in the next few years, rural communities will miss out on millions as commercial companies make megabucks.
https://www.thenational.scot/politics/25022447.lesley-riddoch-welcoming-community-wind-farm-bid/
Posted 1 week ago # -
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Graeme Murray, a Cowal community energy director, said: “If our bid can be rejected, the idea Scottish communities will benefit properly from renewables is for the birds.”
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Posted 1 week ago # -
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Download our latest Resilience report: Building a resilient food system to understand:key risks impacting the food system
why climate change and geopolitics pose the gravest threats
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https://www.igd.com/Social-Impact/Reports/Building-a-resilient-food-system/55967
Via
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Are We Prepared? Could the UK Feed Itself in a Crisis?
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Posted 1 week ago # -
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Scotland’s forestry industry is facing a funding black hole of £24 million and national planting targets will not be met now for at least two years.
A massive budget cut has knocked the forestry industry’s confidence, potentially stalling planting projects and leading to trees being destroyed.
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Posted 1 week ago # -
The International Air Transport Association said it was “yet another case of Heathrow letting down both travellers and airlines”. Willie Walsh, Iata’s director general, added: “How is it that critical infrastructure is totally dependent on a single power source without an alternative? If that is the case then it is a clear planning failure by the airport.”
© The GuardianDavid Omand, the former head of the Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ), told the BBC’s World at One: “Given the importance of Heathrow I am surprised that the whole airport had to be shut for a day.
“I mean, you could understand disruption whilst you change over to alternate systems and so on, but such a complete failure over the period of a day – and who knows the disruption may last longer – is a national embarrassment. It shouldn’t have happened. "
We live in surreal times. Apparently the PM threatened Russia with nuclear weaponry today too.
The poor have to pay for more weapons but the better off are in meltdown about a day's flight delay. (!) People in Southern England heard birdsong with 1300 flights grounded.. This weekend they'll get no sleep as airlines catch up.Posted 1 week ago # -
New figures show Scottish brewing giant BrewDog is to receive a total grant of £2.7 million as it prepares to replace lost saplings and extend planting at its Lost Forest.
There was a story from The Ferret in The National that suggested that there was an element of neglect in a planting beside existing Scots Pines. Not sure if this is related. Did they not get a grant before?
Posted 4 days ago # -
Far better to let rewilding take place naturally - that way you get the right tree species in the right places and aren't left with millions of plastic waste and failed saplings all over the landscape.
To do that you have to remove deer from the area (fencing) and initially encourage things like gorse and bracken which keep the animals away from the young trees.
Bring back apex predator species like lynx to keep deer and other overpopulated species in check. And beavers as their own eco-system engineers
Obviously a more complex subject than I can write here, but rewilding is best left to nature once the man-made influences like sheep farming, game hunting, and deer are in check.
Posted 4 days ago # -
Brewdog "have" to replant to keep the delicious grant moneys flowing. They could quite easily just shoot a whole bunch of deer instead.
It's a big mess and not limited to Kinrara alone. Blogpost contains link to the above Herald article and much else besides for those interested.
Posted 4 days ago # -
Have you noticed far fewer pick-up trucks on our roads recently? That’s because, from April, people who buy or lease one weighing at least one tonne will pay more tax, in line with cars, rather than vans. It managed to pass most people by. But we don’t always need to create new regulation, we already have powers at our disposal.
For example, vehicle idling has been illegal since 1988. Councils have the power to charge idlers a £20 fixed penalty. But they don’t, at least in the capital, because the current fine apparently isn’t enough to justify the increased cost of the contract with NSL, the company which supplies our traffic wardens in Edinburgh.
It’s a wonderful example of how we’re more focused on “balancing the books” than realising that not protecting our health and environment will cost so much more down the line.
What other options could we investigate? Stop subsidising electric vehicle manufacturers by building their infrastructure for them. Do not provide free parking, invest in public transport and park and rides instead. Raise the minimum driving age. Lower speed limits.
It’s time to grab the bull by the horns. A person’s desire to drive does not trump anybody’s right to clean air. The NHS says 2700 people in Scotland die each year due to outdoor air pollution; hundreds die in our capital city every year alone.
https://www.thenational.scot/politics/25030595.pay-road-scrapping-targets-reduce-car-use/
Pick-ups in rural Perthshire are ubiquitous. On school bus drop offs you'll see them hovering to cover the last mile to ferry kids up a steep farm track. Most are working vehicles so not for show particularly. Many children walk though - bikes and scooters in village too.
Posted 3 days ago # -
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Record is chair of Net Zero Watch, a lobby group that argues policies to deal with the climate emergency are too expensive. He is known to have funded the Global Warming Policy Foundation, another climate sceptic group.
He has written frequently for the Telegraph about his scepticism about action on net zero. Record has been approached for comment through the Net Zero Watch campaign.
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Posted 3 days ago # -
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“Three years after bursting on the scene in a blaze of orange, at the end of April the Just Stop Oil campaign will be hanging up the hi-vis,” she said.
“Just Stop Oil’s demand to end new oil and gas is now government policy, making us one of the most successful civil resistance campaigns in recent history. We’ve made fossil-fuel licensing front page news and kept over 4.4bn barrels of oil in the ground, while courts have ruled new oil and gas unlawful.
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Posted 1 day ago # -
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How to Clean Up the Shipping Industry
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00297dc
Apparently 1/3 of shipping is carrying fossil fuels.
Don’t know if that is tonnage or number of vessels (or both).
Posted 11 hours ago # -
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The greenness, or otherwise, of the systems depends very much on the inputs, she explains. If you’re using gas then they’re not that green. But if, as in Stockholm’s district heating network (which also claims to be the world’s largest district cooling system), the inputs include heat from residents’ wastewater, excess heat from the electricity used to cool datacentres and supermarket refrigerators, and steam from incinerated non-recyclable waste at combined heat and power plants, the carbon footprint will be far lower.
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Posted 9 hours ago #
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