Jeremy Williams's Blog, page 104

The world wants renewable energy

Reading about renewable energy in David Elliott’s book, which I reviewed recently, I was struck by this survey from 2017. The Danish energy firm Orsted conducted a survey of 26,000 people across 13 countries, asking them what they thought about renewable energy. They found overwhelming support for it in all of them.

Disappointing that nobody asked anyone in Africa or South America what they thought, but I guess Orsted were focusing on their main markets. Still, this is pretty impressive ...

Book review: Diversifying Power, by Jennie Stephens

I have scoured the bookshelves for books that bring together climate and race. I didn’t find any, which is really the main reason why I have written one. This, however, is the first time I’ve seen the topics specifically linked in a book title – Diversifying Power: Why we need antiracist, feminist leadership on climate and energy.

Very good it is too, a short and punchy book that explains what feminist and anti-racist leadership looks like in a variety of sectors, and then highlights the...

Introducing Earthbound Books

Last week I was in the small town of Oswestry for half-term. As a family, we spent a fair amount of time in the local bookshop, Booka, mostly in the children’s section. My daughter in particular has inherited the bookworm gene, picked more books than I was prepared to pay for, and ended up buying them with her own pocket money. She will go far.

Booka is a wonderful and welcoming local bookshop, and such things are an endangered species. Back here in Luton, a town of over 200,000 people, ther...

What we learned this week

As of this month, America’s biggest energy company is not in fossil fuels, as renewable energy company NextEra has overtaken Exxon in market value.

The days of the IMF dictating policy to developing countries are still with us, warns Oxfam. It finds that 80% of Covid-related loans come with economic stipulations, including the austerity policies that have been rejected by many in the global North.

There is a perception that land given over to solar farms is lost to farming. That’s never ...

Attenborough – A Life on our Planet review

My wife and I watched David Attenborough: A Life on our Planet the other night. It’s the latest documentary from the veteran broadcaster, and it’s a little different this time. More personal. It combines environmental fact with biographical details and archive footage, as Attenborough – now 93 – reflects on the changes he has seen. He describes the film as “my witness statement and my vision for the future.”

In graphics that crop up at various intervals in the film, we see that the glob...

What is energy democracy?

Last week I wrote about energy democracy, which happened to come up in the book I’m currently reading, Jennie Stephens’ Diversifying Power. She’s something of an expert on the topic, and has written about energy democracy in a variety of contexts. She offers this summary of the benefits:

“Energy democracy connects the renewable transformation with redistributing political and economic power, wealth, and ownership to create a more just and equitable world. Leaders who embrace energy democracy ...

Has Covid-19 gifted the world peak coal?

Earlier this year I discussed the possibility that 2019 could mark a peak for fossil fuel production. We’ll have to wait and see, but here’s another piece of evidence from the International Energy Agency’s latest review of global energy. It’s from the the coal section, and it shows the decline in global coal demand.

As you will know, coal is the most carbon intensive form of energy. There is no chance of preventing climate disaster while coal power remains widely used. The peak and then ...

David Lammy on climate and race

As part of this year’s TED conference, the British politician David Lammy gave this talk on climate change and race. It’s a brilliant introduction to the topic, with Lammy acknowledging that his focus had been on social justice, and climate change hadn’t featured. It’s only when you start to see how the effects of climate change are distributed, and how disconnected the causes and the effects of climate change are, that the racial inequality emerges.

“The climate movement is not only about ...

Book review: Renewable Energy, by David Elliott

Renewable energy continues to make big strides around the world, but how far can it go? Can it meet 100% of our electricity needs, let alone 100% of our total energy requirements? Numerous studies suggest it can, but sceptical voices remain.

Here to answer some of these questions is David Elliott, professor emeritus of technology policy at the Open University. He has run a newsletter tracking renewable energy and other technologies since 1979, so you’d be hard pressed to find anyone with...

What we learned this week

As a frustrated would-be user of the government’s Green Homes Grant, I am saddened but entirely unsurprised by the confusion around the scheme at the moment. Might still be salvaged, but at the moment it looks like yet another wasted opportunity on refurbishment and energy efficiency.

I mentioned recently that Ikea had opened its first secondhand shop. It will soon be launching a buy-back scheme for unwanted furniture, taking responsibility for its goods at the end of their useful lives.

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