Iain Soutar

GB Energy aims to attract £15bn funding for renewables The publicly owned energy body has published its first strategic plan since being launched last year.

GB Energy aims to attract £15bn funding for renewables

The publicly owned energy body has published its first strategic plan since being launched last year.

EVs secure over a quarter of November's new car market EV market share of more than 26 per cent represents second strongest monthly performance of the year

Sometimes wonder if we should flip the framing round on these EV sales stories and report that 'petrol and diesel car sales continue to collapse'. www.businessgreen.com/news/4522786...

Al Gore's case for optimism Gore talks to HEATED about COP30, the Gates memo, and why he thinks billionaires should face far more scrutiny in the climate fight.

I talked to Al Gore about Bill Gates's climate change memo.

He called it "manifestly absurd" and questioned Gates's true motives for releasing it.

"He has a lot of irons in the fire with whoever is in power."

YouTube video by Glyn Hudson Installing a SCOP 5 Heat Pump in My House - Design, Install & Monitoring

A must watch for anyone thinking of getting a heat pump for their older home.

Fantastic to see another @glynhudson.bsky.social project swapping an old oil 🔥 boiler for a super efficient and clean heat pump ⚡

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz0W...

GB Energy to target oil and gas-dependent areas in 10,000-job drive Great British Energy is aiming to create a .minimum of 10,000 jobs in the next five years - with a focus on areas historically dependent on oil and gas such as Aberdeen and the North-east.

GB Energy’s new plan puts community energy front and centre, backing 1,000+ local projects so communities can generate power and keep the benefits.

With £15bn private finance unlocked and 15GW of clean power by 2030, this is how a fair energy transition starts⚡🌱

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports #renewables now 10 times more efficient than new nuclear at CO2 #climate mitigation. Build times for new #nuclear are massively longer than for #solar and #wind. Nuclear costs always ramp.

Energy transitions can happen faster than we think:

In 2000 almost 90% of Denmark's electricity was from fossil fuels.

In 2024 less than 10% of Danish electricity was from fossil fuels.

Great example of motonormativity

Wood-burning stoves to face partial ban in Labour’s updated environment plan Exclusive: Pollution targets set out alongside nature recovery projects to allay concerns over housebuilding

The World Health Organization recommends annual limit on fine particulate air pollution of 5ug/m3

The UK Govt Environmental Improvement Plan will align UK’s standards with EU's - 10ug/m3 by 2030

This means in some places wood-burning stoves will be restricted

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The UK's per capita power demand has fallen much faster than France, Spain and Germany since 2000.

Developing some work on power demand, and I'm really rather struck about how stark the difference between us and our European friends is:

What does the Budget mean for energy bills? Major changes to energy bills in the Budget will affect households across the country

We've got some Nesta reaction to the Budget up, underpinned by some brilliant speedy analysis by my colleague Dan Lewis.

📉 What does the budget mean for energy bills?

www.nesta.org.uk/blog/what-do...
@nestauk.bsky.social

This raises a very real question about how we talk about AI. To call this slop is to downplay the fact that it was published in an esteemed journal. We used to call such things fraud, but this suggests the publisher is innocent. AI has changed the terms of debate. We urgently need new norms.

If you want some good news this morning, I showed my three boys the PM doing the six/seven thing and now they have all stopped doing it.

A DESNZ CLEAN SWEEP

A package that saved at least £150 off the average household bill was the minimum this Budget needed to achieve to give Labour at least a fighting chance of getting to their £300 target, given the price rises next year. /1

If you are a PhD or MSc student interested in seasonal heat storage, then you need to know about the 2026 PUSH-IT Summer School.

Open to all students, whether from engineering, geology, or social science disciplines

Please pass on to your networks!

www.push-it-thermalstorage.eu/pre-registra...

Airstream caravan in snowy landscape

Silver airstream caravan under a wooden roof with heat pump outdoor unit in the back

Outdoor unit of heat pump close up

Heat pump for the win. @janrosenow.bsky.social always says you can heat a tent with a heat pump. Well, I can confirm you can very comfortably keep a vintage caravan warm with one in a snowy windy night. 🔌💡

Camping De Nachtegaal, Rodeberg, BE

Impossible how good reading is. You mean I just point my face at the paper for a bit and it does a whole update on my brain?

A Twitter account called Ivanka News tweets an AI image of a young woman wearing Muslim garb. The woman is holding a sign that says "I came here illegally. Should I be deported?" Ivanka News writes: What is your response to this person ?? In the "About this account" tab, it appears the account is based in Nigeria

An account called MAGA scope writes: Who, in your view is the great enemy of the United States? Communism, Islam, Democratic Party, or Satan? The account is based in Nigeria.

An account called MAGA Nadine writes: You go to work and find this. What would you do? The attached pic is an AI image that shows a microwave. The microwave has a sign that says "For religious reasons, this microwave is now making halal food only." The account is based in Morocco.

An account called America First posts an AI image of Tulsi Gabbard. They wrote: How would you rate your trust in Tulsi Gabbard on a scale of 1-10?

Twitter pays people based on engagement (views, retweets, comments, etc). It appears that many MAGA accounts are based abroad and they use AI technology to generate low-effort rage bait.

My guess is that this will get worse as AI tech improves. For instance, fake videos of minorities doing crime.

The world lost the climate gamble. Now it faces a dangerous new reality The world bet on collective but voluntary action to keep global warming at a safe level.

"Warming is going to exceed 1.5°C. We are heading into “overshoot” within the next few years. The world is going to become more turbulent and more dangerous. So, what comes after failure?" Some thoughts from Johan Rockstrom & me 10 years after Paris Agreement.

theconversation.com/the-world-lo...

Haha, fair. Will pass this on to my Herefordian wife

What would be your UK county's official smell? Cornwall is pasty with a hint of sea air, surely.

COP30: UN climate summit drops mention of fossil fuels from draft deal A row over fossil fuels has broken out at COP30 but this is also likely to be a negotiating tactic.

Global lung cancer summit drops mention of tobacco smoking.

COP30: "Best available science" = IPCC is back

The second draft "mutirão" text "recognises the centrality of equity and the best available science…as provided by the IPCC"

Yum

Scientists are becoming more visible in public climate debates, but the effects of this engagement are far from straightforward. We often hear strong claims about credibility and trust, yet what does the evidence say? Our new preprint explores this osf.io/preprints/ps...

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Mmm butteries

What would be your UK county's official smell? Cornwall is pasty with a hint of sea air, surely.

Tierney and McLean send Scotland to World Cup with thrilling win against Denmark Hampden Park has hosted seismic, spine-tingling occasions in a storied history dating back to 1903. Add this one to the list. Scotland’s long, long wait is over. Steve Clarke, Andy Robertson, Scott McTominay, John McGinn; you shall go to the ball. So too Kieran Tierney, whose curler from 22 yards seemed to have sealed victory by the odd goal in five before Kenny McLean produced an even more spectacular fourth. Almost three decades of frustration, during which Scotland have peered towards men’s World Cups from afar, were obliterated as Denmark fell to defeat in stoppage time. Grown men in kilts shed tears. Denmark’s participation in next summer’s jamboree depends on March playoffs. Clarke and a suddenly giddy football nation can start making concrete plans. Continue reading...

Tierney and McLean send Scotland to World Cup with thrilling win against Denmark

Absolute rollercoaster. Never in doubt #Scotland

I think that's the next step, yes!