In 1993 the Norwegian Environment Minister called John Gummer, the UK Environment Secretary, a drittsekk – a shitbag– because of the massive impact on Scandinavian lakes and forest of acid rain caused by emissions from British power stations. In the …
Closure of Longannet signals the end of fossil fuels
When the steam turbines at Longannet power station cease to turn some time tomorrow there will be no coal being burnt for electricity production anywhere in Scotland for the first time in at least 115 years. For a country which virtually invented …
Nuclear – if only they would listen …
EDF today announced that they would extend the life of the nuclear reactors at Torness until 2030. This announcement is hardly a surprise, everyone who knows anything about energy has been expecting this announcement for a decade. The only surprise …
People Power at Paris Climate Summit
The French chair of the process at the climate conference is aiming to get a final agreement signed by 6pm tomorrow. Past experience suggests this is unlikely. I’ve already several times experienced that familiar feeling of turning up at the …
Is COP21.5 a realistic possibility?
AFTER only three days of negotiations there is already talk of whether the disagreements can be resolved, the necessary compromises made, and the political will secured to actually get a deal signed here in Paris at the end of next …
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 …
North Sea – transition from oil jobs to clean energy jobs essential
Last week the Pope produced his much-trailed encyclical on the environment. The core of this policy pronouncement was a strong message on the moral case to act on climate change. A life-long champion of the poor, Pope Francis also criticised the …
The end of the age of coal
With the announcement of the closure of Longannet power station we are probably already in the final year of coal power in Scotland, with the plant expected to stop generating in March next year. We should celebrate the end of …
INEOS – the figures they want you to believe and the numbers they don’t want you to know
Today’s papers make much of INEOS’s claim that fracking could bring £2.5bn of benefit to communities in Scotland. This is despite (a) INEOS having already said this last year (here) and (b) this number being as dodgy as a three-week-old …
Crunch time for the SNP on fracking
The Scottish Government has been markedly less enthusiastic about the development of unconventional gas and fracking than its UK counterpart. However, circumstances are conspiring to ensure that in the next few months, the SNP will have to finally come off …
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 …