PurplePenguin
Regular
60 GW according to wikipedia. Another 32 GW under construction.
Climate Crisis: Are we doing enough?
- Thread starter Banderill
- Start date
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60 GW according to wikipedia. Another 32 GW under construction.
First Aspect
Senior Member
So, about 5%. Quite small.
PurplePenguin
Regular
Well, it is yesterday's technology...
First Aspect
Senior Member
Except for the 32 GW part of it.
PurplePenguin
Regular
They're still building coal power stations too, and that is last week's technology.
First Aspect
Senior Member
Fair point.
matticus
Guru
You've got me interested: how many glue volunteers do you have in mind? Or is there a certain level of congestion/disruption that you'd see as a sort of critical mass? (and how would you spin the ambulance issue?)
First Aspect
Senior Member
You are one of them, aren't you. Has the skin grown back yet?
PurplePenguin
Regular
I find their goal of stopping UK drilling licences to be really underwhelming. So many people have achieved so much more than them. I would include anyone who has worked on any decarbonisation project in the UK in this category.
matticus
Guru
Do you want pictures? You'll have to ask nicely.
Meanwhile, is there any hope of you actually standing by something you say? Could we start with this one: I think Ian and I make reasonable points:
So: do you think this would be good protesting if more gluers were found? What kind of numbers would you hope for? Or is there a certain level of disruption you'd like to see? Which do you prefer: Daily Mail readers late for work, or accusations of delayed ambulances?
First Aspect
Senior Member
It was a reply more to the suffragette analogy of direct action, which was a movement too large to ignore.
My personal view is that to effect change on emissions and climate change, campaigning needs to be focussed on bringing people with you, rather than stopping them getting places.
Fundamentally, people want to carry on regardless, so the task is to explain why the closest they can get to that - given the dire consequences of climate change - is behavioural change.
The direct action approach is about as effective as trying to reason with a conspiracy theorist. Being right doesn't matter, you aren't going to get through that way. All it does is increase the experience of alienation that those people feel towards the issue itself, which is counter productive.
First Aspect
Senior Member
The fact you laugh at a thoughtful response is interesting.
PurplePenguin
Regular
Below is from Climate Change Committee's recent report. It's not all bad.
Executive summary
Climate change is here, now. Until the world reaches Net Zero CO2 emissions, with deep reductions in other greenhouse gases, global temperatures will continue to rise. That will inevitably lead to increasingly extreme weather, including in the UK.[1]
The current record pace of human-induced climate change will mean that the UK’s weather and climate will continue to change over the decades ahead. The UK will experience warmer and wetter winters – raising flood risk for properties, agriculture, and infrastructure. Continued shifts towards drier and hotter summers will increase the intensity of summer heatwaves and droughts, with rising risks of surface water flooding when rainfall does occur. Sea levels around the UK will continue to rise for centuries to come.
At the same time, continued reliance on fossil fuels undermines UK energy security. Household energy bills rose sharply following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and have remained high since. It is the price of gas that has driven up both gas and electricity bills (see Annex 3). With North Sea resources largely used up, a fossil-fuelled future would leave the UK increasingly dependent on imports, and energy bills would remain subject to volatile fossil fuel prices.
The UK should therefore be proud of its place among a leading group of economies demonstrating consistent and sustained decarbonisation. In the UK, greenhouse gas emissions have more than halved since 1990, with the pace of reduction having more than doubled since the introduction of the UK’s Climate Change Act in 2008. Previous UK Governments invested in low-carbon technologies in their early, relatively expensive stages. Now we have the opportunity to build on these early investments and realise the benefits of falling costs.
Today, more than half the energy used in the economy is wasted because of the inherent inefficiency of fossil-fuelled technology. Electrification could halve that waste. The transition to a predominantly home-grown energy supply system powering modern, efficient, electric technologies will reduce household bills, increase energy security, and improve air quality, as well as keeping the UK on the path to Net Zero.
Globally, we are seeing a shift towards low-carbon technologies. In 2024, worldwide, one in seven of all new car sales were fully electric, a record 117 GW of wind generation capacity was installed, and total investment in clean energy technologies and infrastructure reached $2 trillion – twice the investment in fossil fuel technologies. Rising demand and falling prices reinforce each other, creating powerful market forces which, combined with effective policy, mean that rapid change is possible.
The UK has an ambitious target to reduce emissions by 68% on 1990 levels by 2030, our Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the Paris Agreement and the first UK target consistent with achieving Net Zero in 2050. This target is within reach, provided the Government stays the course. Progress to date has been primarily driven by decarbonisation of the electricity system, with renewables replacing both coal and, increasingly, gas. Future progress will require a broader change, especially using low-carbon electricity to replace oil and gas in surface transport, heat in buildings, and industry, alongside nature-based solutions such as tree planting, and engineered removals.
In surface transport, we are now seeing clear signs of that broader change occurring, with emissions reducing for the second year in a row. With the number of electric cars on the road doubling roughly every two years, we expect to see rapid further progress. Increasingly, manufacturers are bringing new, lower-cost electric vehicles (EVs) onto the market, such as the Renault 5, Vauxhall Frontera, and Fiat Grande Panda. Price parity with petrol cars has already been reached in parts of the second-hand market. Emissions reductions from EVs, alongside continued decarbonisation of the electricity system, should drive progress towards the 2030 NDC.
In the past year, we have also seen significant increases in roll-out rates in other areas such as heat pumps, tree planting, and peatland restoration, though still falling short of the rates required to hit targets. There has been some positive progress in policy development. For example, the Government has removed planning barriers in areas such as onshore wind and heat pumps. It has also implemented policies originally developed by previous governments, such as the Clean Heat Market Mechanism.
We assess that 61% of the required reduction in emissions to hit the 2030 NDC is covered by either credible plans or has some associated risks, mostly in the electricity supply and surface transport sectors. For the remaining 39%, there are either significant risks, or insufficient or unquantified plans. The biggest risks are around ensuring the required scale-up in roll-out of heat pumps and the support for industrial electrification. These issues need to be addressed urgently in the Government’s forthcoming Warm Homes Plan and Industrial Strategy, both due this year.
Last year, we made making electricity cheaper our first recommendation. When people and businesses switch to electric technologies, they are paying more than the actual cost of supplying the extra electricity they demand, because of policy decisions taken many years ago. Removing policy costs from electricity would ensure the underlying cost-savings of switching to efficient electric technologies are captured by households and businesses, encouraging take-up. The Government has made no clear progress on removing policy costs since the election. Making electricity cheaper remains our first recommendation.
Executive summary
Climate change is here, now. Until the world reaches Net Zero CO2 emissions, with deep reductions in other greenhouse gases, global temperatures will continue to rise. That will inevitably lead to increasingly extreme weather, including in the UK.[1]
The current record pace of human-induced climate change will mean that the UK’s weather and climate will continue to change over the decades ahead. The UK will experience warmer and wetter winters – raising flood risk for properties, agriculture, and infrastructure. Continued shifts towards drier and hotter summers will increase the intensity of summer heatwaves and droughts, with rising risks of surface water flooding when rainfall does occur. Sea levels around the UK will continue to rise for centuries to come.
At the same time, continued reliance on fossil fuels undermines UK energy security. Household energy bills rose sharply following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and have remained high since. It is the price of gas that has driven up both gas and electricity bills (see Annex 3). With North Sea resources largely used up, a fossil-fuelled future would leave the UK increasingly dependent on imports, and energy bills would remain subject to volatile fossil fuel prices.
The UK should therefore be proud of its place among a leading group of economies demonstrating consistent and sustained decarbonisation. In the UK, greenhouse gas emissions have more than halved since 1990, with the pace of reduction having more than doubled since the introduction of the UK’s Climate Change Act in 2008. Previous UK Governments invested in low-carbon technologies in their early, relatively expensive stages. Now we have the opportunity to build on these early investments and realise the benefits of falling costs.
Today, more than half the energy used in the economy is wasted because of the inherent inefficiency of fossil-fuelled technology. Electrification could halve that waste. The transition to a predominantly home-grown energy supply system powering modern, efficient, electric technologies will reduce household bills, increase energy security, and improve air quality, as well as keeping the UK on the path to Net Zero.
Globally, we are seeing a shift towards low-carbon technologies. In 2024, worldwide, one in seven of all new car sales were fully electric, a record 117 GW of wind generation capacity was installed, and total investment in clean energy technologies and infrastructure reached $2 trillion – twice the investment in fossil fuel technologies. Rising demand and falling prices reinforce each other, creating powerful market forces which, combined with effective policy, mean that rapid change is possible.
The UK has an ambitious target to reduce emissions by 68% on 1990 levels by 2030, our Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the Paris Agreement and the first UK target consistent with achieving Net Zero in 2050. This target is within reach, provided the Government stays the course. Progress to date has been primarily driven by decarbonisation of the electricity system, with renewables replacing both coal and, increasingly, gas. Future progress will require a broader change, especially using low-carbon electricity to replace oil and gas in surface transport, heat in buildings, and industry, alongside nature-based solutions such as tree planting, and engineered removals.
In surface transport, we are now seeing clear signs of that broader change occurring, with emissions reducing for the second year in a row. With the number of electric cars on the road doubling roughly every two years, we expect to see rapid further progress. Increasingly, manufacturers are bringing new, lower-cost electric vehicles (EVs) onto the market, such as the Renault 5, Vauxhall Frontera, and Fiat Grande Panda. Price parity with petrol cars has already been reached in parts of the second-hand market. Emissions reductions from EVs, alongside continued decarbonisation of the electricity system, should drive progress towards the 2030 NDC.
In the past year, we have also seen significant increases in roll-out rates in other areas such as heat pumps, tree planting, and peatland restoration, though still falling short of the rates required to hit targets. There has been some positive progress in policy development. For example, the Government has removed planning barriers in areas such as onshore wind and heat pumps. It has also implemented policies originally developed by previous governments, such as the Clean Heat Market Mechanism.
We assess that 61% of the required reduction in emissions to hit the 2030 NDC is covered by either credible plans or has some associated risks, mostly in the electricity supply and surface transport sectors. For the remaining 39%, there are either significant risks, or insufficient or unquantified plans. The biggest risks are around ensuring the required scale-up in roll-out of heat pumps and the support for industrial electrification. These issues need to be addressed urgently in the Government’s forthcoming Warm Homes Plan and Industrial Strategy, both due this year.
Last year, we made making electricity cheaper our first recommendation. When people and businesses switch to electric technologies, they are paying more than the actual cost of supplying the extra electricity they demand, because of policy decisions taken many years ago. Removing policy costs from electricity would ensure the underlying cost-savings of switching to efficient electric technologies are captured by households and businesses, encouraging take-up. The Government has made no clear progress on removing policy costs since the election. Making electricity cheaper remains our first recommendation.
