GMB, the energy union, has responded to a leaked Government report that the UK needs up to a dozen more nuclear power stations to meet decarbonisation targets. Up to 40 gigawatts of non-intermittent low carbon power stations could be needed in 2050 to reduce Britain’s emissions to “net zero” ministers believe, and the proposed “regulated asset base” (RAB) model would see consumers pay for the plants on their bills during construction.
GMB 30th July 2019 read more »
Governments have completely failed to make progress in tackling the planetary emergency, and a climate revolution is the sole hope that they will do so. This sounds like a sound bite from Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist who is inspiring schoolchildren worldwide to go on strike, or a slogan from Extinction Rebellion, which has been disrupting city life in the UK and elsewhere to secure an urgent government response to the climate emergency. Both campaigns might agree with the statement, but it is in fact from a scholarly book, Burning Up, A Global History of Fossil Fuel Consumption, a detailed study into the burning of fossil fuels since 1950. It looks at fuel consumption in individual countries but also at the political forces that have driven and still drive the ever-growing inferno of fossil fuels, coal, oil and gas, across the world. The book illustrates the reasons behind the rather frightening fact that since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, despite many promises and warnings, governments have failed to take decisive action on climate change and in fact have made it decidedly worse by continuing to subsidise fossil fuels more than renewables.
Climate News Network 31st July 2019 read more »