Going Green

With the 2022 UN general assembly taking place this week, we thought it would be good to go through the Five burning climate issues that was identified by the Secretary-general António  Guterres

These five burning climate issues are;
5. Curbing windfall profits from fossil fuel companies
4. Championing more clean energy and the green transition
3. Funding for the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries
2. Keeping global warming below 1.5C
1. Creating a legal obligation for countries to protect there own people from climate harm

With the Death of late Queen Elizabeth II, King Charles III is the new king of Great Britain and northern Ireland. The Late Queen left a quite a Green Legacy, She was quite frugal and kept a simple diet of local produce and meat that had low food miles. Last year, she expressed her irritation with climate change inaction ahead of the Cop26 conference. unlike the late Queen,  King Charles III, As Prince, was well known for his views on climate change, and for many years before this was popular and a thing, he was beating the drum about this. 

But will he continue the Late Queen's environmental legacy, as well has his own passion for environmentalism and be known as Charles the Green.

Breaking: King Charles III has asked for the Queen’s Green Canopy initiative to be extended into the spring of next year to allow people to turn it into a memorial for his mother.

We would like to Congratulate @GrahamStuartMP who has been appointed Minister for Climate In Liz Truss's New Government, But the same old Climate challenges and targets still remain.  
So we thought about going through what he should be focusing on and what his priorities should be for the next few years.

The list is quite a long one, but a lot of things are already set in motion, such as 7,000 hectares of new trees are being planted each year, but the problem for Graham Stuart MP is finding places to put these trees for example

Last Friday Ofgem (the UK energy regulator) Announced the increase the energy price cap of both Gas and Electricity  from 7p to 15p and  28p to 52p  respectfully on a Standard variable tariff and the Daily standing charges of both types of energy are increasing by 1p
This is the MAXIMUM an Energy company can charge on a Standard variable tariff. But the energy price cap for other tariff are being changed as well (So consult your bill from your energy company to see what tariff you are on!) 

This is for numerous reasons such as the Wholesale Gas and Energy costs, infrastructure and maintenances cost of the Gas and Electricity Network. 
Unfortunately the regulator cannot make the Energy company 'Not' earn a profit and such they can charge additional rates inside your bill making it look like it goes up!

A number that keeps running around is that your Energy bill will go up to £3,548.84 per year, However that figure is based on a 3 bedroom house that consumes  12,000 kWh of gas, and 2,900 kWh of electricity annually. Remember that this is an average not what your bill will go up to!

A carbon offset broadly refers to a reduction in Greenhouse Gas emissions – or an increase in carbon storage (e.g., through land restoration or the planting of trees) – that is used to compensate for emissions that occur elsewhere.
For a Carbon offset to work, we first need to measure and establish how much greenhouse gas emissions that you emit personally or on a organisational level. Once steps have been taken to reduce these, you are then allowed to pay money to offset any emissions that you cannot reduce. for doing this you receive a Credit/coin/certificate that you have offset those emotions and are now Carbon neutral or Net Zero.

HOWEVER, if you haven't reduced before you've offset - which quite a lot of companies have done - then all that's happening is your greenwashing everything!

#Carbonoffsets #climatechange #podcast

Since Water is 2/3 of our planet, its hard to imagine that we could ever run out however only 3% of that water is fresh meaning vast majority of it is inaccessible for human use.
So are we going to run out of water?  
As a result, water scarcity is a pressing and important issue for much of the global population and with all the droughts that are happening around the world, they're reducing the amount of fresh water available for everyone
The United Nations sees water scarcity as “scarcity in availability due to the physical shortage, or scarcity in access due to the failure of institutions to ensure a regular supply or due to a lack of adequate infrastructure.”

As the next wave of heat is hitting Europe, Drought are being declared all over and we are feeling the impact , directly through TUB's (AKA hosepipe bans) or indirectly like potential winter food shortages To understand how a drought can cause food shortages we need to an analogy as falling row of dominoes. Now imagine if the first domino might be farmers’ corn crops dying. The second domino might be that the farmers would not have money to buy a new tractor from the dealer in town. The dealer would then lose money, which would be the third domino. If enough farmers lose their corn crops, the dealership might not be able to employ as many people or may even have to close down—the fourth domino. The dealership closing would cause many more impacts in the community. The farmers’ crops dying would be the “direct” impact of drought. The dealer losing money and all of the other impacts would be the “indirect” impacts of drought. 

A new report from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) has sent press in panic with doom and gloom forecasts. the report talks about the “four horsemen” of climate change with new names such as famine and undernutrition, extreme weather events, conflict, and vector-borne diseases. According to the international team of researchers, they propose need for a new research agenda to look into bad-to-worst-case scenarios ranging from a loss of 10% of the global population to eventual human extinction. (SCARY STUFF) By analysing the mechanisms for these extreme consequences, the international team want to help galvanize action, improve resilience, and inform policy, including emergency responses to better prepare our society and countries around the world.

Over the course of this week, water companies published their drought plans in an effort to say that 
"water is worth saving" but that there is no need to panic over water scarcity. because most companies need to do this year since its required by law every five years to produce and publish a drought plan, and with the ongoing warm weather in much of the country follows the driest winter and spring since the 1970s, these drought plans have made it into the news. then on Tuesday 26 of July, the Environment Agency convened the National Drought Group. The group discussed the current situation and agreed actions to protect water resources and the environment in the UK in the weeks ahead. 
So what is a drought? well there isn't a set definition but this one is quite good.
Droughts are natural events that happen when there are extended periods of low rainfall that create a shortage of water for people, the environment, agriculture or industry. However, every drought is different – in terms of the area they affect, how long and severe they are, and the impact they have on customers, communities, businesses and the environment. With such uncertainty, it is important that we make plans to manage drought, whatever the weather.

National Drought Group is made up of senior decision makers from Environment Agency, government, water companies, Water UK, the NFU and environmental protection groups including the Angling Trust and Rivers Trust. 
#watersworthsaving

So we survived the heatwave. For the first time ever the UK managed above 40°C in many parts, and we experience many  tropical nights (nights that are above 20°C) but Homes in UK not designed for the heat. So what action can be taken, What can be done about new homes being built

We had wildfires burning out homes. 60 properties damaged in the UK with 41of those properties destroyed in fires in London. 

The record is now held at Coningsby in eastern England at 40.3°, a record the town probably doesn't want.  The trains couldn't cope because the rails are not set to cope with more than 35°C
It's not just us. India, France, Spain recorded a staggering 42-3°C making those countries some of the hottest places on Earth. The record is 56.7 °C recorded in 1913 in death valley

We talk about; What are we going to do about this? the fact that Climate change has happened. It will continue to get worse