I’m a fan of agrovoltaics – combining solar panels with farming – and it has a new high profile project. The Vatican’s agrovoltaic project was commissioned by Pope Francis to meet the Vatican’s energy needs. It is now complete, adding the city state to the short list of countries entirely powered by renewable energy.
Meanwhile, the UK government has announced that the long awaited Future Homes Standards will be arriving in the autumn, and are expected to include rules that all new houses will have solar panels. Good news – though I also remember Ed Miliband announcing in 2006 that all new homes would be zero carbon from 2016, and then the Conservatives scrapping that target at the request of the housing lobbyists. So there is a sense of lost time and history repeating itself here.
As climate change destabilises water supplies, nationalists could be handed new tools for ecological warfare. Among the longer term consequences of India and Pakistan’s recent flare in tensions is the suspension of water treaties governing rivers in the region, and Modi’s insistence that “India’s water will flow for India’s benefit.”
The alternative approach is to cooperate over water supplies, as the EU is doing. Their new water resilience strategy is due imminently, and may be called into action sooner rather than later if 2025 rainfall patterns continue.
I very much enjoyed – and also envied, frankly – Indonesia’s micro-libraries that are featured in this photo collection on the Guardian. They include passive design and sustainable materials, as well as being very imaginative and child friendly buildings.
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