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 …
A right to clean air ?
Today is Clean Air Day, an annual opportunity to celebrate progress in making the air we breathe less bad for our health. But we are not doing that well and proposed new standards make that starkly obvious. In 2020 Scotland met …
Voluntary climate action isn’t enough
Last week I wrote about the Rio Earth Summit, which happened 30 years ago. I concluded that few of the aims of the agreements developed there have been delivered. A crucial issue is the voluntary nature of modern climate agreements. The Rio …
30 year on from the Earth Summit – did it achieve anything ?
Thirty years ago tomorrow the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development opened in Rio de Janeiro. Nearly 200 countries met for eleven days and four international agreements were signed. But has it made any difference ? More familiarly known as the …
Let’s make the Circular Economy real
The Circular Economy is turning from an academic concept in government targets and practical actions on the ground. Improving the way we deal with material resources is vital to reducing our climate change impact. Last week I wrote about the need …
Incineration on its way out
Last week the Scottish Government published its independent review of incineration. If they follow its recommendations there will be a huge shake up of the how we deal with materials and waste in Scotland. The review was led for the government …
Golden opportunity for steel
Scotland is ideally placed to create a greener steel industry but will we manage to get our act together in time? Steel making is a big challenge in trying to reduce carbon emissions. It is a very useful engineering and construction …
Local action for the environment
As Scotland goes to the polls today we should remember the huge power that our councils have to deliver on climate and environment ambitions. Our 32 councils control a huge range of things that shape our daily lives. How far you …
Diet and climate
One of the biggest ways we can reduce climate emissions is to eat less meat and dairy produce, but governments are terrified of going down this route. Any list of the things with the biggest personal climate impacts will tell …
Africa feels the force of climate change
As the death toll from floods in South Africa continues to rise, people in the Sahel face drought-driven food shortages, and climate change will only make things worse. This week’s floods in KwaZulu-Natal province in eastern South Africa have killed …
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 …