Ripple is a new energy start-up that is inviting customers to buy shares in a wind farm, making it the first to be owned by its customers. There are community energy groups that might argue that’s only true as a technicality, but it’s still a good idea that supports energy democracy.
Canada has set out proposals for a net zero by 2050 climate target. Yes. Do it Canada.
“As anti-racists, we cannot be against ‘racial’ inequality at home, while at the same time perpetuate ‘racial’ inequality abroad through exploitative consumption habits” argues Samir Sweida-Metwally in this Bristol University Press article on ethical consumerism and racism.
Solar Oysters is a company that plans to use solar power to automate floating oyster farms in the Chesapeake Bay, producing food while cleaning the water – a potentially regenerative form of ocean farming.
Onshore wind and solar are back in the picture in Britain, as the government allows them to be included in next year’s Contracts for Difference auction (a form of subsidy). They have been excluded since 2015 for no good reason, so this is good to see.
This week’s posts:
The changing colours of the energy transition
Here’s a map that I enjoyed from the latest Our World in Data newsletter. It shows the leading source of electricity in each country. It’s a fascinating geopolitical snapshot, telling us a lot about who has access to cheap coal, gas or oil. There are lots of little stories here, adding up to one big…
Book review: Beliefism, by Paul Dolan
With so many to be getting on with, does the world need another ‘ism’ to fret about? It’s a question I asked myself on first encountering Paul Dolan’s book, but the definition won me over. Beliefism is prejudice against people you disagree with, and if you live in the same world that I do, that…
Climate action for the working class
I was travelling out to a school last week in Essex, East of London. My train had been delayed and I jumped in a taxi to get me there on time. The driver was a white man in his sixties, wearing a West Ham football shirt. In the course of conversation, and in-between some choice…
Price parity for EVs has arrived
Twenty years ago it looked like renewable energy was a luxury product. The world would never be able to afford to transition to clean energy, and many environmentalists concluded gloomily that a sustainable future would be one of energy constraints, re-localisation and austerity. Others were looking past the sticker price at the underlying trends and…
The Earthbound Report 
Do the Canadians plan to shut down the tar sands mines? It’s my understanding that their laws are so restrictive that they cannot refine that gunk in Canada, so the pipelines send it to the US.