Posts/data about climate+energy
Press Gazette energy & envt journo of yr 2022
Deputy Ed, Senior Policy Ed @CarbonBrief
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simon.evans@carbonbrief.org
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For the first time I can remember, the CCC says its progress report is "optimistic" about UK climate goals being hit. Interim chair Prof Piers Forster says he is "more optimistic" than last yr due to last govt's policies starting to deliver + changes since Labour took office
In recent years, global oil demand has been almost entirely driven by growth in China…
In Q1 of 2025, the clean-energy driven drop in power sector CO2 outweighed small increases in other sectors of China's economy, driving a 1.6% fall year-on-year overall
Blair says a "strategy based on either 'phasing out' fossil fuels in the short term or limiting consumption is a strategy doomed to fail"
Just so we're clear, let's start with why bother
UK govt says the contract helps security of electricity supplies, but gives Drax a "much more limited role than today" ie it's limited to run at roughly 25% of its max output
UK electricity generation from fossil fuels has more than halved in a decade, falling to 91TWh in 2024 – the lowest level since 1955 and making up the lowest ever share of the total, just 29%
Fossil fuels account for 40% of global shipping trade by volume – but only 10% by value
UK opened the world's first coal power plant in 1882 on London's Holborn Viaduct (pic)
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"… 
Exhibit 2: Ratcliffe cherrypicks Germany – where EV subsidies recently ended – to argue that demand is drying up
Sources:
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)
UK emissions have now fallen in 25 of 34 yrs since 1990 – and pretty much every yr for past two decades
2/
Let's start with cost
New #COP28 stocktake text
🇨🇳🇺🇸US-China climate statement
Before looking at the schoolboy error, let's quickly show why the headline's false
#WEO23 