In an article on the Guardian website, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown wonders where the urgency is to address climate change and the many other environmental and political threats. He writes: “Nor, even up against the existential problem of climate change (the planet is on course for a temperature increase of 2.7C above pre-industrial levels), can many hold out hopes that Cop29 in Azerbaijan will be equal to the challenge. At a time when global problems urgently need global solutions, the gap between what we need to do and our capacity – or, more accurately, our willingness – to do so is widening by the minute.” He goes on: “We are at a global turning point, not just because crises are multiplying far beyond the very public tragedies of the Ukraine and Israel-Gaza wars, but because in a year when nearly half the world has gone to the polls, few political candidates have been prepared to acknowledge the altered geopolitical landscape.” Now go to the first post this week by academics James Dyke, Robert Watson and Wolfgang Knorr for an excellent article on the overshoot myth.
The New York Times (behind a paywall) this week wrote an uplifting article on America’s need for climate workers. It discusses a series of federal programmes aimed at helping America’s work force adapt to climate change. Amongst them is the American Climate Corps launched last year by the Biden administration. It will create 20,000 jobs and “the next generation of creators, thinkers, leaders and doers, working together to tackle the climate crisis”– and will “mobilize a new, diverse generation of clean energy, conservation, and resilience workers.” Are there similar initiatives in your country?
In the context of COP29 in Azerbaijan in November, there is a global call to the UNFCCC to include cultural heritage, the arts and creative sectors in climate policy. Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja has said “it’s time to act” and address the environmental damage wreaked by live music. He says that decarbonised touring is possible. He added: “Some people think the whole point of our sector is to tell people about [the climate crisis], as if it’s not one of the most widely reported issues globally of our time. We don’t need to talk about it – we need to act on it.”
Are you up for a quiz? Check out the post on EnerWhizz. The August quiz is still open. Be a winner!
In planning travel over the upcoming weeks, here is some useful ideas to help you along:
- Lonely Planet’s train expert provides his top 5 rail journeys in Europe for 2024.
- For the best hikes in Europe in 2024, there are many good suggestions on the 57 hours website. For those who want to combine hiking with food and wine, check out the Hedonistic Hiking website.
- Climbing House provides the 11 Top Climbing Spots in Europe.
- Epic Road Rides provides their choice of the best places to cycle in September and October.
- There is always the option of virtual tourism at the Xplore Nature Channel. There are now 130 videos. With the seasons soon changing, why not take a virtual nature walk in Germany.
- The Guardian provides 15 tips for the reluctant camper to love life beneath the stars.
Celeste Saulo (b. 1964), the Argentinian secretary-general of the UN’s World Meteorological Organization, recently reflected in an interview in the Financial Times: “We have to do something. It’s not about sitting at home and looking at this [climate change] as if it were a movie. This is not a movie. This is real life. You cannot turn off the TV and pretend nothing is happening. You are in the middle of the story.”
EiD welcomes your views about this week’s selection of posts on the zero-carbon energy transition:
- Our energy and climate transition: au revoir Paris
- An artificial intelligence system that helps buildings shift their energy use to times when the electric grid is cleaner
- “We need to embrace a circular economy for our energy landscapes”
- It would make sense for the new UK government to implement at pace all the initiatives under the EU’s new energy performance in buildings directive which our European competitors are now adopting with enthusiasm
- Adaptation or mitigation? It’s a false choice — we need both
- Emissions of a super-strong GHG could be substantially reduced if factories properly implemented existing “destruction technology” in certain industrial production processes
- Technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, Building Information Modeling (BIM), and advanced analytics – including cloud and edge computing – will drive improvements in energy efficiency and significantly
- UK businesses ready to ramp up carbon credit investments despite market and integrity concerns
- Community Energy for Energy Solidarity project launches energy solidarity toolkit
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Energy in Demand - Sustainable Energy - Rod Janssen 