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Dealing with Climate Change & Justice

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  1. chdot
    Admin

    “

    It was February 2021 and the eminent Cambridge professor Sir Partha Dasgupta had just delivered a 360-page report to the Treasury on the economics of biodiversity, which brought rigour to a subject often governed by emotion.

    Johnson and Badenoch seemed to support the analysis, which argued that without financial cost/benefit analysis that included biodiversity in its sums, a growing economy would destroy natural habitats. Dasgupta’s hard-headed number crunching showed that when nature is in decline, there is a financial as well as an environmental deficit.

    Fast forward to 2025, and Labour has promised to build 1.5m new homes by the end of the parliament and is already behind schedule. An expanding population and a reliance on private housebuilders, which drip feed homes into the market to maintain high prices, has left the UK with a significant shortage.

    “

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jun/03/new-approach-to-gdp-could-help-nature-survive-labours-housebuilding-plans

    Posted 3 months ago #

  2. chdot
    Admin

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jun/06/planned-ai-datacentre-in-england-could-cause-five-times-emissions-of-big-airport

    Posted 3 months ago #

  3. Baldcyclist
    Member

    Almost a footnote at the bottom, that in the US where the energy will come from is part of planning, and they are building datacentres near nuclear power stations, and hydro schemes (or even having their own decicated mini nuclear).

    UK, yeah, we'll just plonk it there and we'll work out the power later. :/

    Posted 3 months ago #

  4. chdot
    Admin

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jun/09/nigel-farage-reform-uk-welsh-elections-coalmining-revived

    Posted 3 months ago #

  5. neddie
    Member

    Dinosaurs digging up dinosaurs

    Posted 3 months ago #

  6. chdot
    Admin

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jun/08/will-north-sea-oil-and-gas-industry-be-labour-next-u-turn

    Posted 3 months ago #

  7. chdot
    Admin

    “

    Miliband said the “golden age” of nuclear investment was critical to the government’s net zero goals, which will probably require a significant increase in electricity demand, and said that it would not detract from investments in renewables.

    “

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jun/10/sizewell-c-nuclear-power-station-ed-miliband-investment

    Posted 3 months ago #

  8. neddie
    Member

    Foolish thinking.

    Nuclear is too slow, too expensive, too risky to build, displaces* renewables, and remains a dirty industry that leaves us vulnerable to foreign powers for imported Uranium.

    *as it can't be shut down quickly, so they have to shut off windfarms instead, in the event of a surplus.

    Meanwhile, other nations have built several nuclear power plants' worth of battery storage in the space of a year or two.

    And in the UK we have around 10GW of pumped-storage planned to be built (equivalent to 5 large nukes)

    Get over the nuclear obsession will you Labour, it isn't 'jobs for the boys' anymore, it's a dead-end industry. Sometimes I feel it's only kept going because they need to keep some nuclear engineers current to look after the existing mess that's been created. Self-fulfilling road to nowhere.

    Posted 3 months ago #

  9. chdot
    Admin

    And you didn’t mention terrorism or countries we might (already) be at war with or (explicitly) the eternal waste issue/responsibility.

    Ignoring the first two and factoring in the last, I have never thought the economics did/could stack up.

    It’s hard enough to ‘permanently lock away CO2’…

    Another related factor is (apparently) ‘the demand for electricity will double by 2050’ (EdM on radio this morning).

    Will it? Mostly on AI and Crypto? (Or electric cars and trains?)

    Was that realised/planned for 10 years ago?

    Yes Ed still wants to insulate all the houses, but not yet making sure it happens for all new ones.

    Oh and there’s this -

    “

    Rolls-Royce has won a competition to be the first company to try to build small modular nuclear reactors in the UK, as part of a government effort to push Britain to the frontier of nuclear energy technology.

    “

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jun/10/rolls-royce-uk-small-nuclear-reactors-smr-sizewell-c

    Good to have the honesty of “to try to build”. Was that in the Press Release??

    ‘We’ (generally) have to ‘accept’ that either ’common sense doesn’t prevail’ ‘or we know what we are doing, and you don’t know what we know’ or ???!

    Posted 3 months ago #

  10. neddie
    Member

    "I'm doing this because of my belief that climate change is the biggest long-term threat facing us," Miliband said

    If he genuinely believes this, and understands the true issues and solutions, he would be advocating:

    - buying, consuming, and travelling far far less
    - making do with what we have
    - ending short-stay foreign holidays and business trips
    - an order of magnitude reduction in the number of cars and miles driven
    - an order of magnitude reduction in meat consumption
    - ban all junk food, sugary junk, etc
    - ban all advertising (which is largely misleading and there to create demand and "needs" out of "wants")
    - electrify all remaining things
    - being able to, and having the facilities to, repair all things, and keep repairing them until they are absolutely down to threads

    But that wouldn't be a "sexy" big-ticket project like NU-CLE-AR

    But seriously folks, this is what needs to happen (or will happen anyway). You mark my words. We can either go there in a controlled and equitable fashion, or we can get there catastrophically - you decide!

    Posted 3 months ago #

  11. chdot
    Admin

    “

    Acorn Project funding to be announced in spending review

    …

    Alex Lee, from Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: "It would be a disgrace if the chancellor handed over more public money to prop up a fossil fuel industry that is ripping us off.

    "The Acorn Project is a fossil fuel polluters pipe dream and will never live up to the hype."

    “

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg5v9ejez2po

    Posted 3 months ago #

  12. chdot
    Admin

    “

    The Scottish government will focus on renewable energy not nuclear power, a government minister has said following confirmation of significant funding for nuclear power plants in England.

    Scotland has an effective ban on new nuclear facilities because the SNP has a long-standing commitment to block projects through devolved planning powers.

    “

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgr82vqdvzo

    Posted 3 months ago #

  13. LaidBack
    Member

    Will UKGov give ScotGov the proportionate amount of our tax back so people in this country can spend the funds as our elected members wish?

    Acorn Project is like Green Freeports and not believable imho.

    Posted 3 months ago #

  14. chdot
    Admin

    “

    Ros Atkins looks at the reasons behind the government's significant investment, and how its plan fits into the UK's energy mix.

    “

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/c5yxd7ry2n7o

    Posted 3 months ago #

  15. chdot
    Admin

    “

    Yet given the obvious stresses and strains now affecting established democratic systems - low levels of trust and participation, increasing vulnerability to online disinformation and extremist hate-fulled propaganda - the time is clearly ripe for governments which claim to be of the centre left, in London, Edinburgh, or elsewhere, finally to grasp that governments can actually gain power and effectiveness, over time, by empowering people at the grass roots of society to feel a greater sense of involvement in, and influence over, the huge changes our society now faces.

    The renewables revolution provides a rare opportunity for that kind of positive transformation. And the wisest governments will be those that learn how to foster and work with that grassroots energy; instead of clinging to a development model that too often rides roughshod over ordinary citizens and communities, and tramples our remaining local democracy underfoot, as collateral damage in the endless quest for ‘growth’.

    “

    https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/will-our-politicians-harness-the-renewables-revolution-5174999

    Posted 3 months ago #

  16. chdot
    Admin

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2025/jun/15/on-irelands-peat-bogs-climate-action-clashes-with-tradition-in-pictures

    Posted 3 months ago #

  17. chdot
    Admin

    https://www.theguardian.com/news/2025/jun/15/campaigners-mount-coordinated-protests-across-europe-against-touristification

    Posted 3 months ago #

  18. mcairney
    Member

    "Threading through all the actions was a rallying cry for a rethink of a tourism model that campaigners say has increasingly funnelled profits into the hands of a few, while leaving locals to pay the price through soaring house prices and rents, environmental degradation and the proliferation of precarious, low-paying jobs."

    Sounds familiar?

    Posted 3 months ago #

  19. chdot
    Admin

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jun/18/uk-temperatures-of-45c-may-be-possible-in-current-climate-met-office-says

    Posted 2 months ago #

  20. chdot
    Admin

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jun/18/only-two-years-left-of-world-carbon-budget-to-meet-15c-target-scientists-warn-climate-crisis

    Posted 2 months ago #

  21. chdot
    Admin

    “

    Rampant climate misinformation is turning the crisis into a catastrophe, according to the authors of a new report.

    It found climate action was being obstructed and delayed by false and misleading information stemming from fossil fuel companies, rightwing politicians and some nation states. The report, from the International Panel on the Information Environment (Ipie), systematically reviewed 300 studies.

    “

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jun/19/climate-misinformation-turning-crisis-into-catastrophe-ipie-report

    Posted 2 months ago #

  22. chdot
    Admin

    “

    SNP ministers have vowed to “not ask the impossible” of Scots or “sacrifice people’s health or wealth” after charting a new path to net zero with weakened targets.

    The Scottish Government was forced to admit that the previously-agreed legal target to cut 1990 levels of pollution by 75 per cent by 2030 was no longer achievable, but has kept its 2045 net zero ambition intact.

    .”

    https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/snp-scotland-farming-emissions-climate-change-net-zero-5185956

    Posted 2 months ago #

  23. chdot
    Admin

    “

    Metals and Minerals Rare Earth

    The transition to an economy based on renewable energy and electric cars needs huge quantities of materials like copper and rare earth metals.

    Sourcing them can be a problem. Mining damages the surrounding landscape and many of the materials come from unstable regions with poor records on child labour and environmental regulation.

    Are there alternative materials or do we simply need to consume less?

    “

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002dlh3

    V interesting

    Posted 2 months ago #

  24. chdot
    Admin

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jun/22/labour-scraps-950m-ev-rapid-charging-fund-first-announced-by-conservatives

    Posted 2 months ago #

  25. chdot
    Admin

    “

    From 2027, the new British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme will reduce electricity costs by up to £40 per megawatt hour for over 7,000 electricity-intensive businesses in manufacturing sectors like automotive, aerospace and chemicals.

    These firms, which support over 300,000 skilled jobs, will be exempt from paying levies such as the Renewables Obligation, Feed-in Tariffs and the Capacity Market — helping level the playing field and make them more internationally competitive. Eligibility and further details on the exemptions will be determined following consultation, which will be launched shortly.

    “

    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/powering-britains-future-electricity-bills-to-be-slashed-for-over-7000-businesses-in-major-industry-shake-up

    Posted 2 months ago #

  26. chdot
    Admin

    “

    Greenpeace said the initiative was aimed at highlighting the “social and climate injustice” of such events.

    “Bezos embodies an economic and social model that is leading us towards collapse,” Greenpeace said, arguing that lifestyles fuelled by “the arrogance of a few billionaires” are devastating for the planet.

    “

    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jun/24/jeff-bezos-lauren-sanchez-change-wedding-reception-location-in-venice-after-threatened-protest

    Posted 2 months ago #

  27. chdot
    Admin

    “

    The name of the UK North Sea’s largest independent oil and gas producer has been revealed today, marking a major milestone in the creation of the new company.

    Equinor and Shell made the joint announcement to staff this afternoon – with Adura chosen as the bold new presence for their incorporated joint venture (IJV).

    “

    https://www.equinor.com/news/20250626-introducing-adura

    Posted 2 months ago #

  28. chdot
    Admin

    “

    The firm emphasised "the strategic importance of a domestic ethanol supply" and stated that the Government has pledged to engage in formal discussions to find a "sustainable solution" amid concerns over the impact of the UK's trade deal with the US.

    “

    https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/hull-east-yorkshire-news/saltend-bioethanol-plant-could-shut-10296890.amp

    Posted 2 months ago #

  29. chdot
    Admin

    “

    It’s not only Europe: Japan experienced its hottest June on record, the weather agency said Tuesday, as climate change prompts sweltering heat waves across the globe, AFP reported.

    “

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/jul/01/europe-heatwave-weather-hot-temperature-climate-change-latest-live-news-updates

    Posted 2 months ago #

  30. chdot
    Admin

    “

    The SNP Government has hailed the prospect of a boom in offshore windfarm development that it expects UK householders to subsidise as experts have highlighted big failings in its emissions reduction efforts.

    “

    https://archive.ph/lQk71

    Posted 2 months ago #

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