Positive Climate News from August 2024 - Another key, winnable climate election and more amazing renewables news as coal power collapses
It is another month where there is a lot of news worth paying attention to - remember every fraction of a degree of warming we stop, matters!
Happy September! Following on from the format I’m using here, now this post covers the positive climate news for August 2024. If you’re new here, welcome! While there is indeed bad news on climate (and it is not hard to find it online) here the focus is the good news and there is a lot of good stuff happening. However it does not happen on its own; it happens by people taking action. Politics is one of the main areas you can act on and there is another historic opportunity coming up in the US in November for global climate leadership!
Climate activists rally around Harris, seeing a chance to build on Biden’s record
Tim Walz Is One of the Nation's Most Forceful Climate Advocates
Technology & Research Innovations
AI is one of those technology areas that is a mixed bag. We lump a lot of different technologies into one bag and that does not help us sort the helpful from the less so. Here’s a good example of a helpful idea;
Meet Maximo, the AI robot system (by AES) that can build solar farms TWICE as fast at half the cost of traditional projects. Maximo has already installed 10 megawatts of solar & surely is going to accelerate solar development at an absolutely critical juncture in climate action! (Link)
As we need a lot of renewable capacity and we need it fast, this could be a positive development. This is just one of many stories this month that caught my eye. Here are more:
York University research shows importance of measuring solar farm biodiversity
Energy giant to purchase pioneering new geothermal energy technology
Fusion news; It Is Finally, Possibly, Almost Time for Fusion
However! Even if fusion power does not happen soon, there’s a plus! Fusion power might be 30 years away but we will reap its benefits well before
An innovation of old and new technology could save energy and money; firebricks!
Play innovation; Lego to replace oil in its bricks with pricier renewable plastic - Doing the right thing even though it costs more, good on you, LEGO!
Flight innovation; Advances being made in aviation technology that allow a plane to be powered by batteries, promising a more environmentally-friendly, quieter and cheaper ride
Sailing innovation; A fully-electric 10,000 ton container ship has begun service equipped with over 50,000 kWh in batteries
Storage innovation; Scientists Discover How to Convert CO2 into Powder That Can Be Stored for Decades
Renewables News
As ever, renewables continue to go from strength to strength. They are cheaper and cleaner than fossil fuels and are overtaking them globally, despite the subsidies that the oil, gas and coal industries get! For example - a fundamental transformation of the world's energy system is underway. In the International Energy Agency - Net Zero scenario by 2050. This image below is pretty remarkable and we can make it happen!
More renewables news for the month!
World's largest monolithic floating wind power platform sets sail for offshore farm
Good news from the EU: Wind and solar have overtaken fossil fuel power generation for the first time
US; First time ever, U.S. wind output exceeds coal's for 2 months in a row (Plus, wind output up 3,530%; coal output down 87.6% from 2004-2024)
“But what happens to solar power at night?” This - On Wednesday evening (14th Aug) big batteries discharged 8.3GW of instantaneous power into the Californian grid. “They covered 22% of the state's electricity needs at the time - a peak demand period.”
Even more US; Solar power at US schools surges, growing fourfold over the last decade
Spain; Spain's electricity generation mix in July was 57% renewable; 80% renewable+nuclear.
France; ‘Win-win’: Octopus Energy will give free solar-covered storage sheds to French farmers
Australia; Almost 40 per cent of Australia’s electricity is now generated from renewable sources
More Australia; The countries’ biggest solar farm has got the green light!
Even more Australia; By 2040, Australia's households will produce more energy than they consume. Already, one in three homes in the country has its own solar system
Denmark; Energy group Orsted shuts down its last coal-fired plant
Uruguay; The country powered its economy with 100% renewable electricity for 10 straight months
China; China's emissions fell in Q1 in the first quarterly drop since COVID.
More China; Coal is dying there too - The country approved 10.34 GW of new coal in the first half of 2024, a -79.5% year-on-year decrease.
Even more China; "Towering mounds of coal are piling up at mines, ports and power plants across China. It’s an energy-transition signal that miners and traders ignore at their peril."
Politics and People
The next big climate election is in the US. When it comes to climate, to paraphrase, your vote is a chess move towards a livable climate. Make the right move and guide others make such moves too. When a government acts on climate - it can have a major impact. As such looking at US politics, we should acknowledge that the Inflation Reduction Act is one of the most significant climate policies ever. We need more like this and all over the world! To quote Biden, “When I think of climate change, I think of jobs.” - Inflation Reduction Act Creates Over 330,000 Clean Energy Jobs In The USA In Two Years (Link) Spend a few minutes watching this:
Seeing climate in action, helps others act; Amsterdam’s Johan Cruyff Arena has installed a second battery, increasing its storage capacity to 8.6 MWh and allowing a recent soccer match to be entirely run on sustainable energy
People want action; A recent poll of 10,000 people in the UK revealed that the majority support the development of new renewables projects.
Great action tactics! This group of nuns who buy small amounts of stock and then propose shareholder resolutions for like, Amazon to publish its lobbying expenditures or Netflix to implement a more detailed code of ethics
Build a society where action is the norm; How one pop band is trying to turn concertgoers into climate activists
How far the World Bank has come in the last few decades! (Still a way to go, but they have gone from just funding fossil fuel projects to this!) The World Bank has a bond (9 year, $225 million) principal-protected Amazon Reforestation-Linked Bond. This first-ever bond links investors’ financial return to the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere, differing from past transactions linked to the sale of CO2 credits from avoided emissions.
Values matter to climate change; Does framing climate concerns around values that people already care about - including national security, personal freedom, and faith - help them connect the dots? Yes: research shows that it does.
EVs go big; The world’s biggest car market just flipped electric.
Thank you for reading!
Please do share this news with others and keep using hope to power action.
This goes against my narrative of civilisational collapse, so I’m going to ignore it.
Just kidding; thank you, and keep up the great work :-)