The above chart is from the UK Committee on Climate Change's latest (2014) progress report, published this week here. When I asked experts at a recent Energy Conference in Oxford, the view seemed to be that a carbon price of about EU200 per tonne would be needed to enable financial incentives to drive us toward a low carbon future.
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This shows the UN's view of the necessary changes to the UK energy system to do our bit towards keeping global warming to below 2 degrees. It's noticeable that there is a huge amount of Carbon Capture and Storage required for fossil fuels to continue to be a part of the mix in the long-term.
At this event on 17th June 2014, I thought the best presentation was by Cameron Hepburn. His focus was on the economics and policy landscape. More info, and his slides, can be found here.
As self-appointed Planetary CFO, one of my first tasks is to start to get my head round what should be in the World Balance Sheet. Here are some initial ideas. The overall idea is that we should record the commitment to provide sufficiently for the basic needs of a total global population of x billion. This is similar in some ways to pension trusts that hold financial assets sufficient to provide for the pension entitlements of its pensioners. In the World Balance Sheet, the assets need to be maintained in a way that provides for the basic needs of the populace of people, while at the same time doing it in a way that enables the people to live sustainably alongside a sufficiently large and biodiverse population of non-human species, while also recognising limits in other natural, chemical and geological systems of systems that represent One Planet Living in perpetuity.
Most of the text here is inspired by a blog post by Solitaire Townsend at Futerra.
I have just appointed myself Planetary CFO, currently an unpaid role. More details in my nutshell ideas. I hope to post news of my actions and views in further blog posts over the coming months. The following charts, the first from a 2013 Scientific American article and the second from Wikipedia, are useful context for current debates about fracked shale gas. Energy Return On Investment is a measure of how much energy you get out compared with how much you put in (expend) to get that energy out. Shale gas is obviously going to have lower EROI than shale oil (which is a much more energy-dense fuel). Clearly, some renewable energies are far superior to fossil fuels in this respect, with hydroelectricity and wind being the clear winners on this measure, and even Solar PV being superior to shale oil (and therefore by implication also superior to shale gas). And I'm guessing these data currently exclude the energy expense of any Carbon Capture and Storage processes associated with each fossil fuel, since CCS is neither a mandatory requirement nor widely deployed yet.
The Decentralised Energy Forum yesterday in London (organised by Climate Action) was an excellent event. In my capacity as Treasurer of Low Carbon Hub, I was able to fly the flag for the transition to a low carbon decentralised energy system where community-owned renewable energy is a strong element. With my personal hat on, Martin Chilcott (MC at one point in the day) gave me an opportunity to express my frustrations at the potential (if not actual) conflicts between the UK Governmental energy policy priorities of security of supply, minimisation of bills to customers and enhancement of the environment (aka "Natural Capital"). In my humble opinion, there is too much emphasis currently being placed (in the UK and many other countries) on economic growth, and not enough on green growth. I could have been even more controversial and gone on to talk about steady-state economics, where green growth in some sectors would be allowed but degrowth in other sectors would be required in order to keep the whole system in sustainable equilibrium, but I had limited time on the microphone so tried to 'quit while I was ahead'. The best speaker of the day was Julia Groves from Trillion Fund - entertaining, witty, optimistic and inspirational. Like myself (with my former work in BP) she is, in some sense, 'poacher turned gamekeeper' because of her past life in British Airways. All I can say is that she's atoning for her past carbon-emission-sins in great style. Here are a couple of pics from the event. The first features Robert Rabinowitz from Pure Leapfrog. The second (apologies for blurriness) is Julia Groves (Trillion Fund), Malcolm Ball (Green Investment Bank) and Bill Edrich (Bristol City Council). More information (including slides from the presentations) should be available soon at the Climate Action webpage linked here.
A friend recommended this film. In about 40 minutes, it gives a wonderfully positive message about how we can all be part of the change to a sustainable future.
Find it on Youtube here. Ed Davey has announced this competition investigation today - his speech is linked here. The objective seems to be to reduce customers' energy bills, which is laudable. However, improving competition doesn't necessarily improve sustainability. In fact, through effects such as Jevons' Paradox, increased efficiency can lead to greater throughput and an accelerating trajectory towards planetary limits.
Last weekend, a Low Carbon Hub project I'm leading - People's Power Station - competed in the NESTA-ODI Open Data Challenge in Bristol. Although we didn't win £5k of development funding, the work leading up to our 4-minute pitch to a panel of judges sharpened up our thinking and we made some interesting contacts with other people working in a similar marketplace. Here's the moment the panel announced the winners.
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About the BloggerI'm David Calver - an Accountant with a passion for sustainability. Categories
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