The transition to electric cars is happening first in Norway, where the half year new car sales figures are in. All petrol and diesel cars together account for just 10% of sales. Then it’s 32% hybrids and 58% electric.
I’m not sure a low carbon Olympics is actually possible, but we can at least compare Tokyo to previous events.
Light pollution is growing twice as fast as population, and 80% of people globally live in light-polluted skies. Good article on BBC Future on why this matters.
In case you missed this little bit of political theatre, here’s Alok Sharma, Britain’s head of the COP26 talks, pressing the button on the demolition of a coal power station.
An event you might like to be part of: join me in conversation with Esther Stanford-Xosei about climate change and race, evening of September 3rd, hosted by XR Southwark. Online, free, and you can book here.
Highlights from this week in case you missed them:
Can the Ministry of Justice deliver green prisons?
This week the Ministry of Justice announced a significant investment in solar power on its prisons. Three prisons are getting solar installations this year, and a further 16 next year. In total it will involve 16,000 panels at a cost of £12 million – which will pay for itself in energy savings of an estimated…
We have more to learn about fire
Wildfires are one of the most dramatic consequences of the climate crisis, and are back in the news again at the moment. It’s individual places that make the headlines, rather than overall trends, but of course climate change affects wildfires in a variety of ways. Fire seasons are starting earlier and going on longer. There…
The wilful ignorance of Tony Blair
Recently I listened to Michael Liebreich and Tony Blair in conversation about climate change. The topic of degrowth came up, with Liebreich saying that there were roughly two schools of thought on sustainability. There was degrowth, which he characterised as “stop the economy, I want to get off.” And then there’s the view that he…
The Earthbound Report 