There’s a great video on the Sustainable Development Commission website where Jonathan Porritt takes the government to task over its flip-flop on home energy monitors. But the best bit is when he’s asked if anyone in government (especially BERR) really gets climate change. Watch from about 6:45 on – it’s a masterclass in media diplomacy.
Read more on How to be polite on national TV…
Also posted in M&M | Tagged berr, energy, monitor, porritt
Either the prime minister or the BBC has no clue about what nuclear power is for. 93% (pdf) of the UK’s oil consumption is for uses other than electricity generation (e.g. transport) so it makes no sense to argue that nuclear power is a solution to the current oil crisis. (Put another way, oil accounts for 1% (pdf) of the UK’s electricity generation). If you want to solve the power cuts, well that’s a different question (though nuclear isn’t necessarily the right answer to that one either).
Read more on How exactly does nuclear help with the oil crisis?…
There’s an article in today’s Observer about how the credit crunch has affected green attitudes. To be honest, it’s a bit of a meandering piece but after all the talk of fashionable carrier bags, it does make a serious point. No politician in the UK will implement green policies at the moment since a) Labour’s scared stiff that the public will dislike them even more than they already do, b) the Tories don’t want to rock the boat that looks to be sailling towards a big majority in 2010 and c) the Lib Dems are still the Lib Dems, watching politely from the sidelines. They can say pretty much whatever they like and they still won’t get elected.
Read more on “Greenwash is the first paint to flake off”…
Two good nuclear rules of thumb in the Observer last Sunday.
- The cost of decommissioning Britain’s existing nuclear power plants is equivalent to a 1p rise in income tax.
- Nearly half of BERR‘s annual budget (~£1.5 bn) goes to decommissioning
Read more on Nuclear rules of thumb…
Ashely Seager discusses his experience with domestic PV in today’s Guardian. Some of the interesting headline figures include 92% of his family’s annual electricity consumption coming from the PV panels and an estimated ROI of 7%. Pretty good going really, though he points out that the grants fiasco has reduced this return significantly.
Read more on The devil’s in the details…
Two great articles (well, one’s a podcast) on the Guardian today about the shambles that is the UK’s microgeneration programme.
I haven’t followed the microgeneration news for a few months now but I’m off to an event in a week’s time and wanted to catch up on the latest. I was amazed (but not surprised) to find out that a too-much-interest, not-enough-money funding crisis has turned into a let’s-introduce-flaming-hoops-to-drive-people-away crisis.
Read more on More microgen grief…
