Simon Evans Profile picture
Apr 23, 2021 9 tweets 6 min read Read on X
The UK govt has formally issued draft legislation, making its 78% by 2035 climate goal into law

legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2021/978…
It does not (yet) legislate to include international aviation and shipping in the budget, but additional regulations on that will follow

legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2021/978…
for reference, here's Article 30 of the Climate Change Act under which international aviation and shipping will be included

legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2008/27/…
The UK's 78% by 2035 target will avoid 6bn tonnes of CO2e over 30 years and will be a net benefit to the UK economy worth £266bn

That's according to the govt "impact assessment" on the measure

legislation.gov.uk/ukia/2021/18/p…
There's a great thread on the impact assessment here from @timbolord

@timbolord Blimey, the UK govt expects the country's electricity system to be 95-99% zero carbon by 2035

That's 14 years from now

Its modelling includes up to 75% from wind and solar alone

legislation.gov.uk/ukia/2021/18/p…
@timbolord Interesting to see that the UK govt does not expect hydrogen to be used widely for heating, in its core modelling pathway to cutting emissions 78% by 2035

(it does model an alternative "high resource" pathway where hydrogen heat is widespread)

legislation.gov.uk/ukia/2021/18/p…
@timbolord A key issue for hydrogen heat is that low-carbon hydrogen isn't expected to be available at scale by the mid-2030s, according to the UK govt

legislation.gov.uk/ukia/2021/18/p…
@timbolord Also interesting to see UK govt modelling finding that blue hydrogen is needed, but only in the "short to medium term" before truly zero-carbon supplies become available at large scale and lower cost

legislation.gov.uk/ukia/2021/18/p…

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More from @DrSimEvans

Jun 18
NEW ANALYSIS: Cutting the 'green crap' has added £22bn to UK energy bills since 2015

🏘️Insulation rates down 98%
🏚️>1.6m new homes built to low stds
🌄Onshore wind/solar growth crashed

A decade of rollbacks has left the UK more reliant on gas imports – and exposed to high gas prices

carbonbrief.org/analysis-cutti…Image
Just over a decade ago, then-PM David Cameron was infamously reported to have told aides to "get rid of the green crap" as a "solution to soaring energy prices"… Image
After Cameron's "get rid of the green crap" frontpage, a series of UK climate rollbacks followed

First, policy changes and funding cuts for home insulation improvements, with annual loft+cavity wall installations now 98% below previous levels Image
Read 8 tweets
May 9
Fossil-fueled chemicals boss Sir Jim Ratcliffe has an anti-EV tirade in today’s Daily Telegraph, littered with outright falsehoods, half-truths and selective facts

Exhibit 1: Far from "coming to a halt", EV demand grew by 25% in Q1 of this year

Let’s take a look shall we?

1/ Image
Exhibit 2: Ratcliffe cherrypicks Germany – where EV subsidies recently ended – to argue that demand is drying up

As already mentioned, global EV sales grew 25% in Q1 of this year, according to the IEA

2/ Image
How about China, Jim? Ah yes, EV sales are up 35% so far this year. But I guess that didn't fit your narrative.

Nor does the UK, I guess, given sales are up 11% in 2024ytd (31% for plug-in hybrids, on which more later)

3/
Image
Image
Read 11 tweets
Apr 4
It seems @mattwridley thinks @Telegraph readers are idiots

Let's run the numbers:

244,000km2 = area of the UK
5-10% = share of UK Matt says would need to be covered with solar to meet electricity demand in June

40MW = solar capacity per km2
500-1,000GW = solar capacity, if covering 5-10% of UK
300% = share of total UK electricity demand that would be generated by 1,000GW of UK solar
650GW = current solar capacity of China, roughly half the global total
<30GW = actual UK summer peak demand

15GW = current solar capacity of UK, of which ~10GW ground mounted
0.1% = current solar land take
70GW = UK govt solar target, because no one thinks we can run the country on solar alone
<1% = future land take

>20% = reduction in UK gas imports if govt solar target is met

Zero = credibility of Matt's articleImage
Image
Sources:

Land requirement for UK solar 40MW per km2 = 6 acres per MW, based on current solar farms; as noted in the article, govt says future farms would need 2-3x less land

carbonbrief.org/factcheck-is-s…
Summer peak demand is 28GW says NGESO

nationalgrideso.com/research-and-p…
Read 8 tweets
Mar 13
Despite all the UK govt rhetoric about "new gas", confirmation today in parliament that govt expects unabated gas to meet ~1% of demand in 2035

Minister @grahamstuart, responding to an urgent Q from @CarolineLucas, described new gas capacity as "back-up…sensible insurance"

1/ Image
In the debate, we also saw the mask slip from former sec of state Jacob Rees-Mogg, who as a govt minister paid lip service to climate action (left) but now admits he wants to "postpone net-zero indefinitely" (right)

2/
Image
Image
Responding to Rees-Mogg – who clearly still doesn't understand why geography matters when it comes to energy, trade, or indeed trade in energy – Stuart "chide[d]" him & said there was a "climate…emergency"

3/ Image
Read 6 tweets
Mar 11
🚨BREAKING🚨

UK emissions in 2023 fell to lowest since 1879, new @CarbonBrief reveals

💷Emissions now 53% below 1990, as GDP up 82%
❤️‍🔥Drop in 2023 largely unrelated to policy
⛰️Coal now lowest since 1730s (!)
🚗Transport is largest sector, then buildings
⚡️Power now likely emits less than farms🐄

1/

carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-em…Image
UK emissions have now fallen in 25 of 34 yrs since 1990 – and pretty much every yr for past two decades

Latest 23MtCO2e (5.7%) reduction in 2023 takes UK territorial emissions down to 383MtCO2e, lowest since 1879 – when Queen Vic was on the throne

2/

carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-em…
Image
UK emissions in 2023 dropped below 400MtCO2e for the first time since the Victorian era, even falling below the levels seen during the height of Covid-19 lockdowns

3/

carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-em…
Image
Read 10 tweets
Mar 1
The @IEA just published two fascinating reports

Here are some of the best charts

1/

Clean energy is growing twice as fast as fossil fuels Image
2/

Global CO2 emissions rose again in 2023, but clean energy is slowing that growth like never before Image
3/

Clean energy deployment surged in 2023 (but nuclear and heat pumps stumbled)

Deployment growth vs 2022

+85% solar
+60% wind
-30% nuclear
+35% EVs
-3% heat pumps
+360% electrolysers Image
Read 12 tweets

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