The UK has the longest queue to connect to the electricity grid of any country in Europe. There are about 200 gigawatts worth of electricity projects waiting for a grid connection, according to research by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, or enough to power 150m UK homes. In the past, National Grid – the FTSE 100 company tasked with operating most of the UK’s electricity networks – needed to provide connection points for fewer, larger power plants. Today, a far larger number of small, renewable energy projects are mushrooming up across the UK to meet rising demand for electricity from homes and businesses. Recently, MPs on the Commons environmental audit committee opened an inquiry into how to ease the backlog of solar projects waiting to connect to the grid that “could seriously jeopardise net zero Britain”. Clean electricity plans can be stuck for over a decade because of ‘negligence’ by governments over modernising networks, say renewable energy developers as highlighted in the following article. ‘Lack of vision’: UK green energy projects in limbo as grid struggles to keep pace. There was some better news last week when the National Grid announced increased investment plans to £42bn by 2026. They also offered energy developers an “amnesty deal” earlier this year to urge developers to get on with their projects or get out of the queue for a grid connection with no financial penalty resulting in shaving 5GW from the backlog.
We are not the only country that needs to improve their grid. The entire electric grid in the United States has installed capacity of about 1,250 gigawatts of power and there is currently 2,020 gigawatts of energy capacity waiting in line to be connected. Wind and solar power generators wait in yearslong lines to put clean electricity on the grid, then face huge interconnection fees they can’t afford.
Globally investment needs to double to more than $600bn a year by 2030 after a decade of stagnation’, says the International Energy Agency. Fatih Birol, the executive director of the IEA, has warned that the equivalent of the entire global electricity grid – 80 m km of grid – needs to be added or refurbished by 2040 to hit climate targets and ensure reliable power supplies. Global investment in energy grids needs to double to more than $600bn (£492bn) a year by 2030 to hit national climate targets after “over a decade of stagnation at the global level”, the IEA said.
Good News
- Brazil’s National Institute of Space Research has announced that deforestation has fallen to a five-year low within the nation’s Amazon rainforest, reports the New York Times. This is a “sign” that Brazil is making progress on its pledge to halt all deforestation by the end of the decade, it noted.
- Wind and solar generated enough electricity in 2022 to power about 85% of all households in the EU, according to the International Energy Agency.
- Climate: Farmer ‘rewets’ land to harvest bulrushes for clothes. The bulrushes that grow in the marshland will be used to stuff puffer jackets, instead of synthetic fibres or goose down that is currently used by the fashion industry.
- Kenyans get tree-planting holiday to plant 100 million seedlings – BBC News
- Eastbourne hospital installs 2,250 solar panels on car park roof – BBC News
- Let forests grow old to store huge volume of carbon – study. Report says cutting emissions should still be a key priority as it cautions against mass monoculture tree-planting.
- Nations gather in Nairobi to hammer out treaty on plastic pollution
- China and US pledge to fight climate crisis ahead of Xi-Biden summit. Announcement fuels hope rivals can use Apec summit as a chance to reduce tensions
- ‘We can’t carry on’: the godfather of microplastics on how to stop them. As a UN summit in Nairobi debates a treaty on plastic pollution, Richard Thompson, the biologist who first identified microplastics 30 years ago, explains why ocean cleanups and biodegradables will not solve a global crisis
Not so Good News
- Beef, soy and palm oil products linked to deforestation still imported into UK. Campaigners accuse the government of failing to stick to promises made at the Cop26 climate summit in 2021.
- COP28: a year on from climate change funding breakthrough, poor countries eye disappointment at Dubai summit. Rich polluters have evaded any notion of compensating poor countries at the UN talks.
- Rishi Sunak is wrong: we polled the British public and found it largely supports strong climate policies
- UN chief tells world to ‘get a grip’ as report finds not enough action being taken to meet 1.5C climate change target. The United Nations chief Antonio Guterres excoriates governments for falling short on climate action before they meet at the crucial COP28 climate negotiations in Dubai next month.
- How a false claim about wind turbines killing whales is spinning out of control in coastal Australia. Windfarm critics claim projects will harm marine life. Scientists say that’s not backed by credible evidence.
- UK government weakens energy efficiency targets for farmers. Improvement targets for horticulture and poultry were reduced after lobbying from the National Farmers’ Union.
Bad News
- ‘Insanity’: petrostates planning huge expansion of fossil fuels, says UN report. Plans by nations including Saudi Arabia, the US and UAE would blow climate targets and ‘throw humanity’s future into question’. Existing plans would lead to 460% more coal production, 83% more gas and 29% more oil in 2030 than it is possible to burn if global temperature rises are to be kept at 1.5C.
- Onshore wind projects in England stall as no new applications are received. Fears grow that Rishi Sunak’s anti-green policy shift is driving investment in renewable energy abroad.
- Fire is consuming more than ever of the world’s forests, threatening supplies of wood and paper
- This is the world’s hottest autumn on record – and it’s impacting the climate system and human society
- ‘The science is irrefutable’: US warming faster than global average, says report. Government assessment says extreme weather events mean the country suffers a disaster every three weeks, costing at least $1bn.
- Cop28 host UAE has world’s biggest climate-busting oil plans, data indicates. State oil company’s huge expansion plans make its CEO’s role as president of UN climate summit ‘ridiculous’, say researchers.
- Cop28 host UAE breaking its own ban on routine gas flaring, data shows. Exclusive: Fields run by climate summit host have burned gas near daily despite 20-year-old pledge, satellite monitoring reveals.
- Lancet report: Heat stress wiped out equivalent of 4% of Africa’s GDP in 2022 – Carbon Brief
Other Media News
A new climate change and sustainability themed series of programs on BBC iPlayer called ‘Future Earth’ have been brought to my attention. Two out of the four episodes have been broadcast so far; the first explores the challenges cities and urbanised areas face as temperatures rise and the second is about how young people are engaging and learning about climate change.
On BBC Sounds the latest episode of ‘CrowdScience’ is about climate change and asks the question ‘What will 1.5 degrees of warming look like?’ Also on BBC Sounds this week’s ‘The Climate Question’ is ‘Why are climate scientists receiving abuse?‘