Jeremy Williams

The Green Libraries Manifesto

It's Green Libraries Week this week, an event that is organised by the library association CILIP. There are a handful of events across the UK, looking at the role that libraries play in climate change. They are also encouraging libraries to sign up to their manifesto.…

Could you swap your boiler for a data centre?

If you follow the news in the energy world, you will have noted the huge energy needs of data centres. Global energy demand for computer processing has been growing at 12% a year, with AI now added to cloud storage, streaming services, apps and smart…

The rise of more plant-based eating

In my work with schools, I advise them on all aspects of sustainability, along with my fellow climate action advisors at Let's Go Zero. That includes food, and the most important aspect of that is meat and dairy. Local and seasonal food only gets you so far. The…

The global appeal of the doughnut

This week it's the now annual Global Doughnut Days, hosted by Kate Raworth and her Doughnut Economics Action Lab. There are events happening around the world and online, exploring and investigating the ongoing work around doughnut economics. As my own…

Book review: How to fall in love with the future, by Rob Hopkins

Years ago when I was more involved in the Transition Towns movement, I took part in one of their community training sessions. One of the highlights was an imaginative exercise where we interviewed someone from the future about how…

What we learned this week Featuring China's climate targets, a marine treaty, a bonus book review, and solar panels from Aldi.

What we learned this week

Featuring China's climate targets, a marine treaty, a bonus book review, and solar panels from Aldi.

Can São Tomé make its entire country a nature reserve?

A few years ago there was an unusual campaign to make London the world's first national park city. London, especially south of the river, has enough green spaces to just about make that plausible. In 2019 they achieved it, though I don't…

Book review: The Green Ages, by Annette Kehnel

I'm doing a bit of a reading series on the future at the moment. I reviewed Designing Hope last week, with more to come. The Green Ages is part of that too, despite being a book on history. Written by German historian Annette Kehnel and translated by…

Heating homes with seawater

Just outside my office window is a heat pump, which provides our house with low carbon heating and hot water. It's an air source heat pump, which means it draws heat from the air and channels it into the house. There are other forms of heat pumps, notably ground source,…

What we learned this week Featuring China's climate targets, a marine treaty, a bonus book review, and solar panels from Aldi.

What we learned this week

Featuring China's climate targets, a marine treaty, a bonus book review, and solar panels from Aldi.

Film review: Power Station

When you put solar panels on your roof, the sun pays for them. It might not feel like it when you get the installation quotes in, but those panels will generate more than they cost and the universe pays you back. So why aren’t we putting them everywhere? Why are so many…

Currently reading: Sink or Swim, by @susannahfisher.bsky.social - very good so far, and a hardback book without a dust cover is a classy object, no?

Book review: Waste Wars, by Alexander Clapp

Did you know that during the Cold War, 10% of East Germany's GDP came from taking waste from West Germany? People couldn't move across that border, but rubbish could - and it moved from the richer territory to the poorer one. That's a pattern that…

Racist is a descriptive term This week we've seen the Prime Minister at pains to call out the Reform party's racist policies, while insisting that people who vote for Reform are not themselves racists. It's a tightrope walk, with journalists repeatedly inviting politicians to call their opponents racist. For those ready to milk offense for political gain, the distinction between policy and person is quickly blurred again.

Racist is a descriptive term

This week we've seen the Prime Minister at pains to call out the Reform party's racist policies, while insisting that people who vote for Reform are not themselves racists. It's a tightrope walk, with journalists repeatedly inviting politicians to call their opponents…

What we learned this week Featuring China's climate targets, a marine treaty, a bonus book review, and solar panels from Aldi.

What we learned this week

Featuring China's climate targets, a marine treaty, a bonus book review, and solar panels from Aldi.

The landscaper of the climate age

The landscape architect Kongjian Yu died this week, but as a pioneer of climate resilient cities, his visionary work will only get more relevant as the world warms.

Book review: Designing Hope, by Sarah Housley

In 2021 a survey asked 10,000 young people in ten countries how they felt about climate change. 75% said the future was frightening and 55% thought humanity was doomed. "People are not excited about the future any more," notes design futurist Sarah…

Marching for and marching against

There are two very different climate events this weekend - Draw the Line, and SunDay. What can we learn from comparing them?

China’s clean tech turning point

China is still regularly used as an excuse for inaction on climate change: if China isn't doing its bit, then anything we do is pointless. This line became popular about 20 years ago and it had some validity at the time. It hasn't been a serious argument for a…

Book review: A different kind of power, by Jacinda Ardern

I don't generally read political memoirs. In the 18 years I've been posting reviews here, I can only think of a handful of politicians whose books I've featured. But I've got time for Jacinda Ardern, former prime minister of New Zealand and…

What we learned this week I did a bit of a double-take this week when I read that both Dale Vince of Ecotricity and Greg Jackson of Octopus - two leaders in green energy in the UK - had followed the Conservatives' in calling for support for oil and gas production in the North Sea. One of the main arguments for this is that domestically produced gas is cleaner than imported LNG.

What we learned this week

I did a bit of a double-take this week when I read that both Dale Vince of Ecotricity and Greg Jackson of Octopus - two leaders in green energy in the UK - had followed the Conservatives' in calling for support for oil and gas production in the North Sea. One of the main…

What is plug-in solar?

Earlier this year I wrote about alternatives to rooftop solar, and all the many ways you can benefit from solar power without investing in a full scale installation. The most intriguing of those alternatives is balcony solar, which has been booming in Germany over the last…

Five roles you can play in climate action

What can I do about climate change? That's a very common question, and it's an important one. Climate change is a global phenomenon that is unfolding over decades. It can be hard to find a useful role for individuals when the problems are so clearly…

How war drove Moldova’s energy transition

Moldova is surrounded on three sides by Ukraine, with Romania to the West. Like many countries in Eastern Europe, its energy systems are a legacy of the Soviet era. Infrastructure runs East towards Russia. For decades Moldova has run on Russian gas piped…

Book review: The Climate Diplomat, by Peter Betts Peter Betts was involved in climate negotiations for longer than almost anyone in the British government, from COP4 in 1998 onwards. At times he was a negotiator, at other times an advisor. He worked with a succession of governments and ministers, had been at the table for several key moments in the UN, including acting as the EU's chief negotiator for the Paris Agreement.

Book review: The Climate Diplomat, by Peter Betts

Peter Betts was involved in climate negotiations for longer than almost anyone in the British government, from COP4 in 1998 onwards. At times he was a negotiator, at other times an advisor. He worked with a succession of governments and ministers,…

Meeting my own net zero target A few years ago now there was a big drive to set more ambitious climate targets. Net zero emerged as the phrasing of choice, with the UK government aiming for 2050. I was involved in the Extinction Rebellion movement at the time, who were calling for net zero by 2025. Although that was clearly impossible as a nation, I figured it ought to be possible for us as a household.

Meeting my own net zero target

A few years ago now there was a big drive to set more ambitious climate targets. Net zero emerged as the phrasing of choice, with the UK government aiming for 2050. I was involved in the Extinction Rebellion movement at the time, who were calling for net zero by…

Book review: Breakneck, by Dan Wang

If you want to understand China and its distinctive relationship to the United States, then framing it as communism vs capitalism isn't helpful, argues Dan Wang. Instead, think of the differences between lawyers and engineers. "China is an engineering state,…

Good point!

From coal power station to battery storage

Tilbury A and B were twin coal-burning power stations in Essex, built next to the river Thames so that coal could be brought in by barge. For decades they served electricity to nearby London, before they were decommisioned. There was a brief attempt to…

What we learned this week A study by WRAP and the University of Leeds found "no correlation between price and durability" of t-shirts. Expensive ones didn't last longer before losing their shape or pilling. This rather plays into the hands of fast fashion that sells cheap and with low expectations - if you can't trust more expensive brands to be better, why spend the money?

Including t-shirt durability, an all electric town, and beer made from pasta.