Britain’s Labour government is tying itself in desperate knots to avoid raising taxes, but some of them would be very popular – such as taxing private planes. Possible have a nice little video highlighting the absurdity of untaxed private planes. Have a look, then email your MP about it.
Another fun little campaign that you might like to take part in is the International Pyjama Party for Night Trains, taking place on December 12th. The idea is to get people to turn up to international stations across Europe for an impromptu pyjama party, highlighting the opportunity for sustainable travel on night trains.
Something we’ll be hearing more about over time – the cities installing ‘climate shelters’ where people can stay cool during urban heatwaves.
The government has announced that they will subsidise air-to-air heat pumps as well as air-to-water heat pumps, finally. They will also subsidise heat batteries in an expansion to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme. This is good news for those in smaller homes who can’t install a standard heat pump.
Latvia is considering rewilding wetlands along its border with Russia, DW reports. This would be great for biodiversity and the restored peatlands would store a huge amount of carbon – while also serving as defensive feature against Russian aggression.
For those with a Spotify subscription, my book Climate Change is Racist is available in ebook form at the moment. Not sure how long it will stay in their catalogue of free ebooks, so listen to it while you can.
Latest articles
The countries on track for net zero by 2050
Five years ago a whole succession of countries declared net zero targets, to the point that it became something of a standard. Half a decade on, how many of those countries are on track to meet that target? Fifteen, according to a new study from Allianz. Those 15 countries have already reduced their emissions by…
Low carbon heat is not the first heating transition
We had a heat pump installed in the house earlier this year. With frost on the ground yesterday, it’s been tested in lower temperatures for the first time and is doing just fine. The house is warm and maintaining a steady temperature, and we’re spending less on energy than we did with the gas boiler.…
Tracking the spread of electric buses
In 2018 I came across a striking fact: 99% of the world’s electric buses were in China. It was there that they were commercialised and produced at scale, and every month Chinese cities were adding more buses to their fleets than the rest of the world put together. The benefits of electric buses did not…
The Earthbound Report 