How Britain kicked coal

Despite the chaos of Brexit and the difficulty of expanding renewable generation in a country where sunshine is notoriously scarce, and despite strong opposition to wind turbines, Britain has just about ended its use of coal-fired electricity. The last coal-fired power stations are set to close by 2025, but the process is almost complete already. How was this achieved?

The answer can be found in this graph released by Ofgem, the British electricity regulator. As it shows, coal (shown in orange) supplied around 40 per cent of British electricity in 2006, yet by 2018 its contribution was negligible. (The graph on Ofgem’s site is interactive, so you can see the actual numbers there.)

Read the story by John Quiggan from Inside Story - “How Britain kicked coal.”

Maths illiteracy has led to Trump and Brexit: Eddie Woo

Dubai: For Eddie Woo, there's a direct link between the trouble many adults have with maths and the election of Donald Trump, Brexit and climate change denial.

Cherrybrook Technology High School maths teacher Eddie
 Woo says the way maths is taught in Australia and around the
world needs to be changed radically.

Mr Woo, the Cherrybrook Technology High School maths head teacher who has become known around the world for his maths YouTube videos, said the inability of many people to understand data and statistics has become a major social problem.

Read the story by Pallavi Singhal from The Age - “Maths illiteracy has led to Trump and Brexit: Eddie Woo.”

We Can’t Keep Eating Like This

George Monbiot - we can't keep eating like this.

Brexit; the crushing of democracy by billionaires; the next financial crash; a rogue US president: none of them keeps me awake at night. This is not because I don’t care – I care very much. It’s only because I have a bigger question on my mind. Where is the food going to come from?

By mid-century there will be two or three billion more people on Earth. Any one of the issues I am about to list could help precipitate mass starvation. And this is before you consider how they might interact.

The trouble begins where everything begins: with soil. The UN’s famous projection that, at current rates of soil loss, the world has 60 years of harvests left, appears to be supported by a new set of figures. Partly as a result of soil degradation, yields are already declining on 20% of the world’s croplands.

Read the piece by Guardian columnist, George Monbiot - “We Can’t Keep Eating Like This.”

Brexit could leave the European Union struggling with its climate targets

Natalie Latter.

Britain has been a consistently progressive driver of climate policy in the European Union. Given the EU’s significance in international climate change negotiations, Britain’s vote to leave the union has implications both for EU policy and for the global Paris climate agreement struck last year.

The UK has been crucial to EU climate change policy in ways that have evolved over time. Britain’s strong domestic emissions reductions have made more ambitious EU burden-sharing targets possible. This in turn gave credibility to the idea of Europe as a global leader on climate ambition – something that has become a cherished part of many European citizens' self-identity. Britain has also been a crucial bridge between the United States and Europe in the United Nations' climate negotiation process.

Yet the EU’s climate policy ambition has arguably already declined over the past decade as it has struggled with a rising tide of resistance from more recalcitrant member states, chiefly Poland but also including, at various times, Italy, Hungary and Romania. Assuming that the EU manages to stave off any further disintegration, these voices will likely grow louder.

Read the piece by a PhD Scholar from the University of Western Australia,  Natalie Latter, on The Conversation -  “Brexit could leave the European Union struggling with its climate targets.”