The UK is one of a handful of countries on track to meet aggressive emissions reduction goals (at least if one extrapolates from recent rates of decarbonization). How has climate mitigation matinained such bipartisan continuity in the UK? Asking for some friends across the Pond... - ThreadSky

jessedjenkins.com • 110 days ago

The UK is one of a handful of countries on track to meet aggressive emissions reduction goals (at least if one extrapolates from recent rates of decarbonization). How has climate mitigation matinained such bipartisan continuity in the UK? Asking for some friends across the Pond...

Reposted from Simon Evans

The UK's 2035 climate pledge, announced at #COP29 yesterday, is to cut emissions to 81% below 1990 levels by 2035

Here's how that looks in context…

Comments

rob.purves-smith.ca•110 days ago

Does that UK emissions chart include CO2 from biomass? @volts.wtf’s podcast on the topic (https://www.volts.wtf/p/whats-the-deal-with-burning-wood ) opened my eyes to the fact that the UK emissions reporting is wildly skewed by categorizing biomass as renewable - substituting for coal, but net worse in terms of near-term CO2.

rob.purves-smith.ca•110 days ago

Which is to say: it’s much easier to maintain bipartisan support when you grant yourself an enormous loophole that allows the coal-fired power plants to remain in operation.

itsmetodkrains.bsky.social•110 days ago

Their citizens are much better educated about climate change and take personal actions and political ones to help combat it.

chrisjparker.bsky.social•110 days ago

The UK is not on track to meet the 2030s NDC based on our latest progress report.
https://tinyurl.com/ms3stp7w
Climate legislation has been in place since 2008. The positive case for climate action has been made by both sides of the political spectrum and climate mitigation maintains strong public support.

monewsdaily.bsky.social•110 days ago

JESSE...busted downplaying again.

freewheeling.info•110 days ago

It used to. Rishi Sunak ended bipartisan support for decarbonisation last year to win a by-election. Google Uxbridge by-election for backstory.

Up until that point, it wasn’t a wedge issue mainly because other things were.

My worry is that it’s gonna be hard to get the genie back in the bottle.

daniel12345.bsky.social•110 days ago

"The rules, introduced under former Prime Minister David Cameron in 2015, meant an objection from just one person over an onshore wind development in England could stop it going ahead."
🤷

guynewey.bsky.social•110 days ago

I think we may be about to head into a bumpy period. That said, the consensus has been significant. Partly reflects a strong environmental tradition among Conservatism. (Probably much longer post needed).

philip.health•110 days ago

Is the UK a good example though? Almost no GDP growth and high costs for electricity. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/09/26/britain-burdened-most-expensive-electricity-prices-in-world/

jonasnahm.com•110 days ago

Deindustrialization and emissions offshoring. Coal industry killed in the 1980s already.

teymour.me•110 days ago

This has a lot to do with how it's counted. Emissions from the $900bn of goods they import are excluded from their CO2e inventory.

jessedjenkins.com•110 days ago

That doesn't make as big an impact as you think. Several studies have shown similar slope of decline in consumption based emissions. Same for the USA.

teymour.me•110 days ago

Interesting, thank you for pointing it out. I guess my old French habits of criticizing Brits die hard? Curious to get any of those studies if you have one of them handy.

devon123.bsky.social•110 days ago

They don’t have Fox News :)

sorenhave.dk•110 days ago

Good question. Maybe @mliebreich.bsky.social has a take on that?

mliebreich.bsky.social•110 days ago

I do, though it would take a long thread to explain. I have written something relevant which should publish soon. Once that's out, I'll come back and try to explain more. Short version is we're actually a pragmatic, globally oriented people, but this is a moment of peril for bipartisanship in UK.

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply