Jeremy Williams's Blog, page 3

Book review: The Climate Diplomat, by Peter Betts

Peter Betts was involved in climate negotiations for longer than almost anyone in the British government, from COP4 in 1998 onwards. At times he was a negotiator, at other times an advisor. He worked with a succession of governments and ministers, had been at the table for several key moments in the UN, including acting as the EU’s chief negotiator for the Paris Agreement. He knew everybody. When he was diagnosed with a brain tumour and given 15 months to live, he decided he’d better write i...

Meeting my own net zero target

A few years ago now there was a big drive to set more ambitious climate targets. Net zero emerged as the phrasing of choice, with the UK government aiming for 2050. I was involved in the Extinction Rebellion movement at the time, who were calling for net zero by 2025. Although that was clearly impossible as a nation, I figured it ought to be possible for us as a household.

If we reached net zero ourselves, we could test the ideas and the technologies that make it possible. We could demonstrat...

Book review: Breakneck, by Dan Wang

If you want to understand China and its distinctive relationship to the United States, then framing it as communism vs capitalism isn’t helpful, argues Dan Wang. Instead, think of the differences between lawyers and engineers.

“China is an engineering state, building at breakneck speed, in contrast to the United States’ lawyerly society, blocking everything it can, good or bad.” This isn’t theoretical. Xi Jinping is a chemical engineer by training. His predecessor, Hu Jintao, was a hydro...

From coal power station to battery storage

Tilbury A and B were twin coal-burning power stations in Essex, built next to the river Thames so that coal could be brought in by barge. For decades they served electricity to nearby London, before they were decommisioned. There was a brief attempt to convert one of them to run on biomass, an aborted ‘clean coal’ proposal, and then they were demolished in 2017.

The plants have gone, along with the rest of the UK’s coal power, but something useful was left behind on site. All power stati...

What we learned this week

A study by WRAP and the University of Leeds found “no correlation between price and durability” of t-shirts. Expensive ones didn’t last longer before losing their shape or pilling. This rather plays into the hands of fast fashion that sells cheap and with low expectations – if you can’t trust more expensive brands to be better, why spend the money? On the other hand, it also rewards brand loyalty when you find a clothing company that makes things well.

A few years ago Toast introduced their b...

Renewable energy is almost always cheaper

Rewind back a decade, and fossil fuels were the cheapest form of energy almost everywhere on the planet. There were just three countries where wind power was out-competing coal and gas, and solar was always more expensive.

That changed fast. Over the next five years wind power became the cheapest form of energy generation in a dozen countries, including the UK and the US. Solar prices fell low enough that it became the cheapest form of power in Australia, India, Israel and handful of sunny c...

How climate action can support the arts

Pay someone’s electricity bill, and you keep their lights on for another month. Pay for their solar panels, and they’ve got cheaper electricity for a decade or two. I risk echoing that cliche about teaching proverbial men to fish here, but solar has a way of multiplying its impact over time. A church near me spent a £40,000 legacy on solar panels recently. Over the lifetime of the panels that will be worth £300,000 in free electricity. It is in the truest sense a gift that keeps on going.

Th...

What we learned this week

I wrote recently about my own experiments with temporary shade structures on my own house. Here’s Low Tech Magazine with a historical overview of similar things. In the past, it was entirely normal to ‘dress’ your home for summer or winter, something we have forgotten how to do with the advent of central heating and air conditioning.

When US citizens were asked to estimate what percentage of the federal budget is spent on overseas aid, the average answer was 26%. The real figure is 1%, or 0....

Book review: The City of Today is a Dying Thing, by Des Fitzgerald

“This book, I should say at the outset, is against green cities.”

That’s the contrarian premise of The City of Today is a Dying Thing, from Irish sociologist Des Fitzgerald. You don’t need me to tell you how counter-cultural that is. Visions of greener cities are ubiquitous, from simple plans for more street trees to Saudi Arabia’s grandiose desert follies. I am myself very much in favour of greener cities – sorry Mr Fitzgerald – but I nevertheless rather enjoyed the book.

Why? Firs...

Video: Could degrowth save the world?

An interesting overview of degrowth from the BBC News channel that I wanted to draw your attention to. Unusually, producer Alvaro Alvarez has gone looking for practical examples of people attempting to live out degrowth principles, alongside academics and theorists. One is rural and one is urban, a co-housing project in Spain with shared spaces and a library of things.

Being the BBC, it’s also forbidden from picking a side and features some sceptics too. Some economists pop up at the end to f...