🌱 The Grumpy Optimists #90
Green party wins big in local elections and Devon beach crowned one of the best surf spots in the world.
Happy Tuesday. 👋
Welcome back to another episode of The Grumpy Optimists, a day late because it is a bank holiday in the UK on Monday.
No long runs this weekend, but lots of positive climate news. Let’s dig into it!
👀 Articles to read
💚 Green party win big in the UK local elections. The UK green party won control of a council for the first time and gained over 240 seats in the most recent local elections. Interestingly, while Greens have traditionally performed well in urban areas, such as Brighton, many of the wins came in rural areas at the expense of the Conservative party and signals a wider, positive shift towards supporting the ideas of the green party.
🏄🏻♂️ North Devon named the UK’s first world surfing reserve. 18 miles of Devon coastline, including the pity city that is Croyde, is now recognised amongst the likes of Malibu, Santa Cruz and Noosa as a world surfing reserve. As somebody who has been fortunate enough to surf in several places worldwide (despite being horrendous), I can confirm Croyde is an absolute delight and deserving of this status.
🐻 Carrefour turn waste oranges into marmalade. In a move that would make Paddington happy, in Spain, the supermarket Carrefour has introduced orange and tomato preserves that uses fruit that would be otherwise wasted.
⚖️ ClientEarth is suing a giant soy supplier for deforestation and human rights failings. Cargill, one of the biggest food companies on the planet and the largest exporter of Brazilian soy is being sued by the environmental law group for failing to ensure their products don’t cause harm to people or nature. The group want to see Cargill improve its due diligence and minimise the risk its operations result in deforestation and human rights violations.
🔥 New York state bans gas stoves and fossil fuels in buildings. The state of New York has introduced a policy banning natural gas and fossil fuels in buildings, initially for buildings below 7 stories by 2026 and above by 2029. The ban exempts restaurants and hospitals but is a signal of things to come. You may recall that not too long ago gas stoves became part of a new culture war.
💷 Ripple shared solar park can help customers save money and emissions. Ripple Energy is offering a community-owned investment opportunity for a 42MW solar park in Derril Water, UK, that will produce enough electricity to power 14,000 homes. The scheme allows homeowners to invest as little as £25 to cover up to 120% of their home's annual electricity consumption, resulting in an average saving of at least £200 a year and saving 19,000 tonnes of carbon emissions across the entire project.
🐙 Octopus Energy call for changes to accelerate renewable energy. Octopus Energy has called for the national grid to overcome its gridlock which currently assesses projects on a first come first serve basis, resulting in projects sometimes taking years for a connection to the grid, often behind less-developed sites. The energy firm suggests its changes could unlock the equivalent of 2.5m homes worth of clean energy.
🐳 Can whales be turned into carbon credits? In capitalism's desire to put a value on everything a new project called the Whale Carbon Plus Project is aiming to sell carbon credits from whales in an attempt to boost phytoplankton levels and suck carbon out of the atmosphere. While it seems rather silly, it does provide a motive to protect the world’s largest mammals which would be valued at around $2.5-$3mn over their lifetime. It does however beg the question of whether we should be treating everything as an asset class, or perhaps that’s exactly what is needed with the system we live and operate in.
🚱 Drought causes France to ban garden swimming pools. In a somewhat ominous signal to what the summer may entail, parts of France have already had to put in place crisis-level drought rules, banning garden swimming pools and car-washing.
🌎 VCs come together to tackle net-zero emissions. The Venture Climate Alliance (VCA) an organisation of 23 global VC firms aims to support start-ups that can cut emissions. The alliance manages $62.3 billion in assets.
This episode was written after making some great bagels, probably too much exercise and even more ice cream because why else would you exercise? I also rediscovered a seriously good noughties tune and have been singing along in the shower probably too frequently, do enjoy.
The Grumpy Optimists 💚