Many people would rather forget 2016 and its catalogue of mistakes, disasters and deaths. The election of Trump poses a real threat to environmental progress and climate action. Richard looks ahead to a busy 2017 for climate campaigning and getting Scotland on the path to a fossil free future.
Marrakech blog – urgent action needed and still possible despite Trump
Yesterday at the UN Climate Conference in Marrakech a broad coalition of development, union, faith and environment groups laid out their analysis of where the world is heading and the urgent action that is needed to meet the targets agreed …
The SNP conference – what REALLY happened on fracking ?
Oh dear. When the fracking voting at the SNP conference was over I knew the media would have trouble explaining it. But their early online stories have outdone themselves this time, producing headlines which are the opposite of what actually …
The Budget and the Environment
On the face of it George Osborne’s Budget doesn’t say much about the environment. But if you dig into the details there is plenty to show that David Cameron’s claim that the last government would be the ‘greenest ever’ has …
Inquiry day 12 – Orson Welles, public data and buffer zones
Today we spent a long time picking over Dart’s Waste Management Plan, including a lunch-time huddle on whether the development was an extractive waste area, an extractive waste facility or a Category A extractive waste facility. We also debated whether …
Inquiry day 10 – regulating acronyms
We had a day of PEDL, CAR, PPC, MEW and other TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms).* This was the first day of hearing sessions – parties sitting around the table having a discussion rather than individual witnesses being grilled for hours. …
Inquiry day 9 – defunct companies, carbon budgets and planning for the climate
Douglas Bain, in charge of the UK for Dart spoke this morning – after 8 days this was the first time anyone got to question someone actually from Dart Energy rather than their consultants. Mr Bain made much of the …
Inquiry day 8 – Planning, energy policy and wishful thinking
Dart’s planning expert spent all day at the witness table today, several hours of it under the politely merciless scrutiny of our lawyer. Dart tried to go through all the historical sites for which they still had current planning permissions. …
Inquiry day 7 – climate, health and planes
The other side tried to play games today, with our questioning under time pressure because we were told their air quality and climate witness had to leave by 10. After follow up questions by the reporters and Dart’s QC he …
Inquiry day 6 – Cultural heritage and climate change
Today Concerned Communities of Falkirk got the opportunity to put Cultural Heritage, from participation to community values, in front of the Inquiry. Input ranged from a very personal account of concern over the threat to a local resident’s dream home …
Inquiry day 5 – frogs and toxic rain
Today was the first day at Falkirk Stadium, rather more cramped than last week’s venue, but with much more reasonable prices for tea … Today’s special session took video evidence from Australia from toxics expert Dr Mariann Lloyd-Smith and GP …
Inquiry day 4 – big beasts
We started the day with Dart’s witness on leaking methane saying that you can never get two geologists to agree. One of the undercurrents over many months has been the rivarlry between RPS and AMEC – two big beasts of …