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TODAY'S CLIMATE AND ENERGY HEADLINES

Briefing date 27.01.2022
UK commits £100m to proposed Sizewell C nuclear plant

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News.

UK commits £100m to proposed Sizewell C nuclear plant
Financial Times Read Article

The UK government has given £100m in funding to the proposed Sizewell C new nuclear scheme in Suffolk, the Financial Times reports. It says the move means the government has “moved closer to taking a stake in nuclear power generation for the first time in more than a decade” and is “part of attempts by ministers to accelerate the project”, by helping fund continued development and aiming to “attract other external investors”. The FT explains that the money “would work like a convertible loan”, becoming a government stake in the scheme or being repaid, once a final investment decision – expected in three years – is taken. BBC News says the £100m given to Sizewell C “does not commit the government to approving the project, which is still subject to negotiations”. It adds that a decision on whether to build the plant had been expected in April but could be delayed, and that the scheme “is expected to take about nine years to build”. Analysis from BBC News business editor Simon Jack says the project, if it goes ahead, would be funded by a “regulated asset base” levy on consumer bills, costing an average household around £12 a year. He says: “Many will say this is a strange time to be considering adding money to bills expected to rise by 50% in April, but the government argues that soaring gas prices make a powerful case for weaning the UK off fossil fuels.” Reuters quotes business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng saying: “In light of high global gas prices, we need to ensure Britain’s future energy supply is bolstered by reliable, affordable, low carbon power that is generated in this country.” The Guardian says the Sizewell C scheme “has been plagued by opposition from local campaigners, fears over its price tag and China’s involvement”. Sky News and BusinessGreen also report the news.

Separately, Energy Monitor looks at how the Dutch coalition government, formed in December, has “open[ed ] the door to new nuclear with €5bn”. Meanwhile, the Independent reports: “Nuclear energy not feasible way to tackle climate crisis, former regulators say.”

US: Breyer retirement paves way for Biden Supreme Court pick
E&E News Read Article

Several US publications report the news that liberal Supreme Court justice Stephen Breyer is to retire, with E&E News saying this “allows President [Joe] Biden to advance a nominee before the midterm election”. It continues: “Breyer has frequently voted in favour of green groups in major environmental cases. [He] is also the last remaining member of the Supreme Court who voted with the 5-4 majority in Massachusetts vs EPA, which said the federal government has the authority to regulate greenhouse gases.” E&E News adds: “Replacing Breyer wouldn’t give Biden an opportunity to shift the Supreme Court’s current 6-3 conservative majority, but it would help the court avoid a deeper loss to its liberal wing.” For the Washington Post, the Daily 202 briefing says Breyer’s retirement “won’t change the Supreme Court’s conservative bent”. It adds: “Climate, affirmative action, abortion, guns. The Supreme Court refashioned by former president Donald Trump’s three justices could soon hand conservatives a series of far-reaching victories reshaping the landscape of some of the most difficult and divisive issues in American life.” It quotes the paper’s Climate 202 briefing saying a recent order is “the latest indication that the conservative majority on the Supreme Court is stepping in to assess the limits of the nation’s bedrock environmental laws – potentially in ways that hamstring President Biden’s environmental agenda”. Slate has an article titled: “The Supreme Court’s plan to block climate action we haven’t even taken yet.” It explains: “On 28 February, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the first of an expected wave of cases challenging governmental action to address the climate crisis. The court’s grant of four petitions seeking review in this case – two by coal companies and two by states – portends that the six conservative justices will erect significant barriers to meaningful climate policy and will continue to interfere with democratic governance in disregard of the rule of law.”

High energy bills blamed on company profits, Russia and growing global demand
Press Association Read Article

People in the UK are blaming high energy bills on energy company profiteering, the Russian government cutting supplies and rising global demand for gas, according to a new survey covered by Press Association. It reports: “Just 13% of people thought green levies were among the factors most to blame for high energy bills, polling for the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) revealed.” The newswire adds: “The most popular option for tackling high bills was cutting the rate of VAT on energy, which was backed by nearly a quarter (24%), and a windfall tax on large energy companies, which nearly a fifth (19%) supported. When it came to long-term solutions, the most popular was decreasing dependence on gas and moving to more use of renewable energy, with more than a third of people (36%) backing that move.” Sky News carries an “exclusive” on the poll findings. It reports: “only 13% of the 2,000 people surveyed agreed that removing green levies from bills was the answer, and even fewer thought that fracking or more gas from the North Sea was the right approach”.

The Daily Telegraph covers a separate survey, reporting: “More than a third of households care more about cutting their bills than using environmentally friendly alternatives, according to a new poll.” It adds: “Balancing costs and environmental concerns was of equal importance to 43% of respondents, the survey found.” The paper quotes a research director at the polling firm Ipsos Mori, which carried out the research, saying: “Britons are split on the right balance to be struck between saving money and protecting the environment – many think we should strive to do both, but substantial minority do put cost of living savings first at the moment.” The i newspaper reports the findings under a headline suggesting rising bills “could force squeezed Britons to abandon green lifestyle choices”.

Regions growing coffee, cashews and avocados at risk amid global heating
The Guardian Read Article

Some regions that produce coffee, cashews and avocados may not be able to continue growing the crops “within decades as a result of global heating”, the Guardian reports, citing a new study. It says “all major coffee-producing regions face a decline in suitability” by 2050, according to the research. The parts of the world that are suitable for these crops will “change dramatically as the world heats up”, says BBC News. It reports that the area suitable for growing arabica coffee in the world’s current major producers would halve by 2050. The Independent also has the story. Carbon Brief also covers the research, explaining that it looked at outcomes under low, moderate and very high emissions scenarios, with significant shifts in conditions even under moderate warming.

Car making in UK falls to lowest level since 1956
The Times Read Article

The number of cars made in the UK last year was the lowest since 1956, the Times reports, attributing the fall to “the global shortage of computer chips and manufacturers’ uncertain transition to lower-emission and fully-electric cars”. The paper says car production is a third lower than in 2019 and “barely half the numbers of the most recent high in 2017 before manufacturers turned off the investment tap into Britain in the wake of [the EU referendum]”. The Daily Telegraph also has the story. The Financial Times reports that high energy costs “will increase the pressure on UK car manufacturers to lift prices this year, the industry’s motor lobby group warned”.

Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that electric car company Tesla made $5.5bn in 2021, marking a third straight profitable year. The paper says the firm delivered just short of 1m vehicles and nearly double the number it had sold the year before. The Times reports that the company’s earning rose 65% last year. The Daily Telegraph also has the story. The Times reports separately that Bentley is to make its new electric car in the UK. The Guardian reports that the UK’s electric vehicle charging network is lagging behind, according to Volkswagen.

Comment.

Hold your nerve: Energy transition risks and red herrings in 2022
Albert Cheung, BloombergNEF Read Article

In a commentary for BloombergNEF, the company’s head of analysis Albert Cheung writes on the global energy crunch and potential risks to the low-carbon transition due to “the rapidly changing macroeconomic environment and political challenges”. Cheung writes: “As the energy crunch wears on, higher prices will increasingly feed through to consumers, leading to more soul-searching over whether ‘green’ policies are the cause of the pain. Some of this will come from well-meaning officials and commentators, but it will be amplified by those wanting to slow the low-carbon transition.” He says that green surcharges on bills remain relatively small and stable, whereas wholesale energy costs “have ballooned”. As to the idea that green policies are constraining supplies of oil and gas, he writes, “there is equally little evidence of this”. Cheung concludes that blaming the energy crisis on climate action is a “gigantic intellectual trap” but adds “the risk here is that we fall for it”.

The Conservatives face 1997-style annihilation if they don’t stop this drift
Allister Heath, The Daily Telegraph Read Article

In a column for the Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph editor Allister Heath says the government needs to take “drastic, urgent action” to avoid a coalition of Labour, the SNP, Welsh nationalists, Greens “and other rabble-rousers” from “seiz[ing] power” at the next election. This, Heath writes, would be “calamitous and result in a vicious class and cultural war from which the country would never recover”. In order to avoid this outcome, says Heath, prime minister Boris Johnson needs to “accept major shifts to his green agenda” and clear his cabinet of “neo-socialists, green fanatics and [the] pro-woke crowd”.

For Conservative Home, Tory MP Robert Halfon – a member of the climate-sceptic Net Zero Scrutiny Group and long-time campaigner for lower petrol prices – says the “partygate” scandal is “not the sole reason for our polling woes”. Halfon writes: “The last few months have sometimes seen the Conservatives acting in a Notting Hill sequel, with prioritisation focused on COP26, windmills and solar power…the chancellor should reduce or get rid of the green levies which amount to 25% of our energy costs as well as get rid of VAT on fuel.” [Halfon’s figure is incorrect. Policy costs, including green levies and social measures, make up less than 15% of household bills and are even falling as high gas prices push up bills.]

Carbon offsetting is not warding off environmental collapse – it’s accelerating it
George Monbiot, The Guardian Read Article

In his Guardian column, George Monbiot argues that “wealthy companies are using the facade of ‘nature-based solutions’ to enact a great carbon land grab”. He says that he was part of a campaign to support the restoration of nature as a means to capture carbon but “we warned that it should not be used as a substitute for decarbonising economic life, or to allow corporations to offset greenhouse gases that shouldn’t be produced in the first place”. Monbiot continues: “But our warnings, and those of many others, went unheeded. Something that should be a great force for good has turned into a corporate gold rush, trading in carbon credits.” Pointing to what he calls “carbon colonialism”, he says: “There is simply not enough land on Earth to soak up corporate greenhouse gas emissions.”

Separately, the Big Issue reports that there is a “severe risk of failure” in UK plans for nature-based climate solutions, putting the country’s net-zero target in doubt, according to a House of Lords committee. For more on nature-based solutions, see Carbon Brief‘s recent explainer.

Science.

Global climate-driven trade-offs between the water retention and cooling benefits of urban greening
Nature Communications Read Article

Common urban greening methods, such as green roofs and parks, are unlikely to be provide a single fix for reducing the risk of heatwaves and flooding in cities, a new study suggests. Using a hydrological model, the researchers quantify how “climate-driven trade-offs exist between hydrological retention and cooling potential of urban greening”. The results indicate that urban greening strategies “cannot yield high performance simultaneously for addressing both urban heat-island and urban flooding problems in most cities globally”.

Blockchain, climate damage, and death: Policy interventions to reduce the carbon emissions, mortality, and net-zero implications of non-fungible tokens and Bitcoin
Energy Research & Social Science Read Article

New research discusses the recent commercialisation of “non-fungible tokens” (NFTs) for digital art and the CO2 emissions and “future deaths” they could cause as the climate warms. The increase in NFT transactions is associated with “carbon emissions resulting from verifying transactions in proof-of-work blockchains”, the researchers explain. The study “examines the recent policy interventions designed to motivate a shift in blockchain consensus protocols and promote miners’ energy efficiency to mitigate environmental damage”.

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