Jeremy Williams's Blog, page 5

Book review: Slow Down, by Kohei Saito

Of all the world’s political ideas, degrowth and communism are among the hardest to sell. One would think then that a book subtitled ‘how degrowth communism can save the earth’ would be of niche interest at best. And yet, on release in 2020, Kohei Saito’s book somehow captured imaginations in Japan. It sold half a million copies over the next two years and started a resurgence of interest in Marxism.

It’s fair to say I wouldn’t have sought the book out without this backstory, but now tha...

Solar for everyone with RePowering London

One of the risks of climate action is that, if done without an eye on justice, it can benefit society’s winners and entrench inequality. Solar is a case in point. Wealthier households who own their own homes can get cheap energy from installing solar panels. Renters and those on lower incomes would benefit more from the savings, but don’t get to take part.

Community energy can be similar, providing an investment opportunity for those with some surplus cash. It’s better than energy from big c...

What if you can’t install a heat pump?

Having installed a heat pump in our house recently, I recognise that it’s not going to work for everyone. It takes up a lot of space and we’ve had to design it into an extension – not something you can do in an apartment or a small home. We’ve also spent the last ten years steadily improving the insulation on the house to make sure it works well. Again, not something everyone can do if they have an older property. And we were fortunate that we didn’t have to change all the pipes in the house. Lo...

What we learned this week

With Just Stop Oil calling it a day in the UK, saying their mission has been achieved, now Last Generation have turned off the lights in Germany. It feels to me like the closing of a chapter of civil disobedience for the climate.

The Climate Coalition are organising another mass lobby of parliament, their biggest yet, on the 9th of July. Register here for Act Now, Change Forever.

Analysis of the current UK heatwave from World Weather Attribution has found that climate change has made the...

Clothing is climate adaptation

This morning I had a conversation with my daughter about school uniform. It’s been hot this week – for the UK at least – and school has finally said they don’t need to wear their blazers. We await the day that boys are allowed to wear shorts, but it’s a concession to the fact that clothing needs aren’t the same all year round.

Despite how obvious that might sound, formal or informal rules around clothing don’t necessarily recognise this. The British Army has shirt sleeve orders that determin...

Climbing the energy ladder with BURN

At the Ashden awards last week, BURN won the Award for Outstanding Achievement. It’s a special category in honour of the 25 anniversary of the awards, given to a previous winner who has gone on to do extraordinary things.

BURN make affordable cookstoves which save families money, reduce indoor air pollution and help to protect forests. They won an Ashden award in 2015 for their first cookstove design, and at the time they had sold 62,000 of them. Ten years later they sell five million stoves...

Celebrating 25 years of the Ashden Awards

The Ashden Awards were held last night, marking 25 years of the awards for climate innovation. To mark the occasion, four previous winners were honoured with outstanding achievement awards, in a ceremony presented by Myra Anubi, with special guests Vanessa Nakate and UK Climate Envoy Rachel Kyte. Two new winners also took home awards, Emergent Energy in the UK and Sosai Renewable Energies from Nigeria.

The awards were set up by Sarah Butler-Sloss, who told the story of their genesis at the ce...

Book review: Deficit, by Emma Holten

In 2020 Emma Holten read an article in the Danish press that argued that over the course of their lifetimes, women took more from the public purse than they gave. This made them a net deficit to society. Holten took umbrage at the idea, quite rightly, and borrowed the word as the title of her book.

It’s not exactly news that women don’t contribute the same amount to the treasury as men, but to imply that women are a drain on resources is to undervalue what it is women are doing while the...

Earth in 100 seconds

A few years ago there was a thought-provoking video that showed Britain’s land use, Britain in 100 seconds. The man behind the film, Dan Raven-Ellison, has now produced a global version. Each second of the film shows 1% of the Earth’s land, beginning with 10 seconds walking through ice, and then into deserts and so on.

It’s a neat visual reminder of how human activity has appropriated an ever greater slice of the Earth’s surface, what we use it for, and what remains for wildlife. Have a look...

What we learned this week

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 wil...