Future generations will look back at our flirtation with the most unsustainable and most expensive form of energy production – nuclear power – and curse us for the mess we have left them. But the end is beginning to be in sight …
UK climate plan still falls short
Revised UK climate plans continue to fall short of delivering on internationally-agreed targets while new energy plans continue to back expanding oil and gas production. Last week the UK Government released 44 climate and energy documents, including a revised version …
Nuclear still not the answer
The nuclear industry and their friends are stepping up their propaganda war but their terrible track record shows that new reactors are still not the answer to reducing emissions or supplying affordable power. The UK Committee on Climate Change, official …
What the Energy Strategy really said about fossil fuels
In response to last week’s Scottish Government Energy Strategy one newspaper ran a front page headline announcing the end of the oil and gas industry. The truth is less clear. The long-awaited new Strategy is a draft and public responses are …
The environment in 2022
In the midst of war and a cost of living crisis, some good things were achieved for the environment but we also went backwards in 2022. The climate scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change produced a report on …
Nuclear at Ineos – a gift to campaigners
The talks between Ineos and Rolls Royce about siting a nuclear reactor at the Grangemouth refinery are a huge early Christmas gift to campaigners opposed to a new generation of nuclear. The idea contains the perfect combination of elements needed to …
Sizewell C decision surely a joke
Approving another nuclear power station when we should be doing everything to reduce energy prices is surely a joke. Reports at the weekend said that Boris Johnson had approved government funding of £6bn towards the £20-30bn estimated cost for the …
Pointless nuclear propaganda war
At the weekend a newspaper story revealed the scale of nuclear industry lobbying of MSPs and Ministers. Sadly for them nuclear reactors across Europe are increasingly showing the folly of relying on complex, always late and eye-wateringly expensive technologies for power. …
The Ferret – Industry lobbies MSPs to back nuclear power
A story in the Ferret and Sunday National covers the nuclear industry’s propaganda offensive to get nuclear power back on the agenda in Scotland. These are the full quotes I gave to the Ferret: “Investing in renewables and energy efficiency …
UK and Scottish energy strategies on collision course
The UK Government’s new energy strategy makes no sense at all and puts Westminster on collision course with Holyrood. In early March Boris Johnson said he would produce, as a matter of urgency, a plan to respond to the twin …
30 years of progress, but still not enough
Today is my last day at Friends of the Earth Scotland, after 30 years in the Scottish environment movement. There has been good progress in those three decades and the environment and climate change have moved from fringe concerns to mainstream …
What war in Ukraine means for energy
The terrible war in Ukraine is being used by opponents of green energy to promote more oil and gas, new nuclear and even fracking. None of which makes the slightest sense.