🌱 The Grumpy Optimists #93
France ban short-haul flights, Ukraine builds more onshore wind than the UK and more climate news...
Happy Tuesday. 👋
Welcome back to another episode of your favourite climate newsletter The Grumpy Optimists. Thank you again for all the support and messages about enjoying and sharing the newsletter, it’s pretty wild to see it being shared from company to company and colleague to colleague.
For those of you not in the UK, today’s episode was not on Monday because it was a bank holiday here in the UK and I’m trying this work-life balance thing out. Turns out, both life and work are both pretty great.
This week we’re looking at France banning short-haul flights, a big win for the climate but also for my engagement on LinkedIn when I became a comment centre for people thinking we’re losing freedom and moving back to the stone age. We’re also looking at Europe banning the destruction of unsold textiles and how tea farmers and elephants can coexist and create a healthy ecosystem.
Without further ado, let’s dig in!
👀 Articles to read
🇺🇦 Ukraine built more onshore wind turbines than England in the past year. Ukraine, a country going through war was able to build and install 114MW of capacity in the last year, compared to the 1MW the UK installed. It’s a fairly shocking indictment of the UK government's approach to onshore wind which has been effectively banned since 2015. It is, however, a sign that renewable energy can flourish even in situations like the war in Ukraine and that surely things can get better.
🪨 Can enhanced rock weathering help tackle climate change? Enhanced rock weathering is a process that uses tiny pieces of basalt rock, a byproduct of the quarrying industry, to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. UNDO, a company based in the UK is hoping to accelerate a process that has been happening for millions of years to remove carbon from the atmosphere immediately. The company aims to scale up its operations over the coming years having just raised $12 million and getting the backing from Microsoft.
🪧 1,500 Extinction Rebellion supporters arrested for protesting in the Netherlands. This may not seem like good or positive news, but it’s important and highlights the strong support for climate action throughout the Netherlands and the role that protesting can have in creating action. It’s particularly positive when you see the protesters enjoying the water canons.
🛫 France ban domestic short-haul flights in favour of trains. In a bid to cut carbon emissions, France has banned domestic short-haul flights where train alternatives exist. The ban all but rules out air travel between Paris and cities including Nantes, Lyon and Bordeaux. On average, the plane emits 77 times more CO2 per passenger than the train on the routes where flights are banned.
While it is only a small percentage of overall emissions, it’s a strong signal that more action can be taken. However, based on the comments from my LinkedIn post, some people are looking at this as a way to take away the freedom of choice for citizens. This is not necessarily the case, but it is important to understand how some people think and ensure that climate policies are seen as positive, not negative.
☀️ Energy prices dip below zero in Europe due to perfect conditions. Over the last week, several European countries had power prices fall below zero during the day, mainly driven by the high generation of renewables and low demand for energy from heating or cooling. Finland was one of the countries to experience negative energy pricing.
🌻 UK solar farms can be wildlife havens. New research has found that solar farms can be wildlife havens, especially when managed with conservation in mind. Insects living around ground-mounted photovoltaic panels could also benefit neighbouring agriculture by enhancing the number of available pollinators. Well-designed and well-managed solar farms can help address the climate emergency and loss of biodiversity in the UK.
👚 Destruction of textiles to be banned in Europe. The EU's textile consumption has the fourth highest impact on the environment and climate change after food, housing and mobility. This move will help drive forward the circular economy with companies finding alternative ways to deal with excess stock such as donating, reselling, recycling or even better still, rethinking the way we produce clothing.
🐝 Addressing biodiversity and the climate crisis. Last week was world biodiversity day so I want to highlight the decline in biodiversity over the last 50 years and the work of Professor Miles Richardson and the biodiversity stripes. The biodiversity stripes were created in 2022 and are a visual representation of the change in biodiversity over time. The stripes show that the population of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles has fallen by 69% globally since 1970 and is a powerful tool for raising awareness of biodiversity loss.
😊 But what’s the good news? Well, we're continuing to see the rise of companies like 🌾 Wildfarmed promoting regenerative agriculture, 🍺 The Gipsy Hill Brewing Co using their barley for their Regenerator beer and startups like 🔎 NatureMetrics helping to monitor biodiversity.
💲JPMorgan Chase spends $200 million on carbon removal. Good news or a token gesture? While this investment is to be acknowledged for removing and storing 800,000 metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere, it’s just 0.0005% of the investment JPMorgan has made to support the fossil fuel industry since 2016.
🐘 A feel-good video
Elephants and tea farmers coexist using organic farming with the elephants eating weeds and reducing the need for any pesticides.
That’s all for this week folks, a delightful bank holiday weekend as we head into June. I have courgettes starting to grow and tomatoes ready to be planted outside, what’s not to love? This week’s song recommendation comes in the form of Palace - a really nice garden tune.
The Grumpy Optimists 💚