There's a robot server appeared in my favourite veggie restaurant near Tsinghua. Although it mainly seems to require being followed by a human.

UK to get a lot more electricity storage as a result of recently announced plans for new batteries and pumped hydro. The press didn’t notice just how transformative this might be. carboncommentary.substack.com/p/why-the-an...

Can you see me from space? Very hot work climbing the steps up to the final watch tower.

I'm in Beijing for the Tsinghua summer school. It's 16 years since I was last here. The air quality seems have improved dramatically, although I knew that from the data. Crossing the road is still an utterly terrifying experience. Pray for my safety. 🙏 no road included here for calm.

Back to the old houses: something from me on one of Burnham’s few explicitly stated policies - council housebuilding as.ft.com/r/c7559f9c-4...

New open access article from me and Peter Taylor in @climate-policy.bsky.social Decarbonization from the ground up: what Local Industrial Decarbonization Plans reveal about place-based approaches to decarbonizing industry in the UK www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... #EnergySky

Today's Energy News: Polish billionaire unveils plans for UK small modular reactor fleet⚛️ Neso: What UK’s grid could look like beyond 2030⚡ We’re set to miss 2030 clean power target📊 Read more here: mailchi.mp/d5999071be7f...

Why Labour MPs are still on X

There are some win wins. Link to the report: www.cbi.org.uk/articles/the...

Join the Healthy Buildings Network Leeds and Prof Yuguo Li for an event exploring Airborne Transmission of Respiratory Infections in Indoor Networks. 📆 Monday 6 July 🕑 2 – 3pm (GMT+1) 🗺️ Civil Engineering LT A, University of Leeds Register for your place: forms.cloud.microsoft/pages/respon...

My Iraqi PhD student sent me his final chapter. I sent back comments and suggested he use a grammar checking tool as there were a lot of small errors. Grammarly identified it to be 100% AI (totally falsely obs). Now he's panicking about Univ checks on submitting. What a weird world we've entered.

Give me a shout if were 30 s from a goal because I tend to lose concentration...

Also an interesting read. nicholasbeuret.substack.com/p/anyone-but...

Growth for the common good, shared spaces, collective music, sport & culture. A lot to get behind here though I need to read the book. Above all I'm desperate to hear a govmnt with a strong positive narrative & now seems to be a good time to reinforce that point. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

This is how humid it is...

#Machines have inspired this week's @artukdotorg.bsky.social's #OnlineArtExchange in preparation for Tick Tock Marvels @tulliecarlisle.bsky.social. We love this broken down, abstracted version of a machine by McCance and have compared it to our own machines in the Uni's Textile department! 🧵

If you would like to help, you can add your voice here:

I'm a Unite member but work in the renewables sector. Far from clear to me that my union is looking out for me this week.

Why has nobody added Oops Upside Your Head as a soundtrack to this??

It's a great achievement but policies like ULEZ mainly work because we have engineering solutions to reducing emissions that can be enforced: efficiency measures, aftertreatment systems and electric motors. Traffic numbers have only dropped by a few % in London.

It was inevitable, wasn't it🙄 Of course the Telegraph would run with something like this👇 So let's remove some of the rose-tinted spectacles and also look at some of that data comparing 1976 with modern heat waves Because the 1976 nostalgia porn is wearing a bit thin at this stage 🧵1/23

Here's the CCC's @elpinchbeck.bsky.social speaking today in front of the Met Office's new "future forecast" for a... ..."plausible 2056 heatwave". Yes, that's showing 45C (113F) in the Bristol area! With exquisite timing, the UK's all-time June temp record is due to be broken this week.

After 18 months of R&D with a team of specialist academics, I'm VERY excited to say that @carbonbrief.org has just launched 'Project Cosmos'... ...the world's largest database of climate research Our hope is this becomes a major new resource interactive.carbonbrief.org/cosmos/index...

37. In Leeds? You've got to be kidding. Think i will be spending Thursday in the back of the van with climate control on max. Better get the fridge loaded up. Yuk.

We don't seem to ponder on this question much about farmed animals but now the question arises about AI? We've all lost it.

This is flat wrong from Unite. It’s just not true there’s been ‘almost no thought for jobs, skills and national security’. There’s been a huge amount of thought on all these issues and a decision has been made that jobs, skills, and security all benefit from a faster clean energy transition.

Today is World Refugee Day. Here’s a poem called ‘Refugees’.

Unsurprisingly the environmental disbenefits are huge, although I am a bit surprised at the narrowness of the uncertainty ranges. Will this push rail back up the agenda??

Found an elephant in the woods.

Sorry, but this is quite, quite mad. Pro-fossil fuel policies in Aberdeen - the literal fossil fuel capital of the UK - are always going to play well. It is in no way a referendum on North Sea oil and gas and its absurd to position it as such.

Lovely orchids (common spotted) in the woods at Timble.

6 weeks to hopefully having more time to sit here. Unless it gets too hot...

Explore the world of Fluid Dynamics in our new online course - join now (or after the ⚽️) @fluiddynamic.co.uk @universityofleeds.bsky.social @envleeds.bsky.social #fluids digitaleducation.leeds.ac.uk/news/explore...

BTW. This also works. Sorry Norman if you don't agree. The irony is not lost that this is a social media post but the point stands. If we want young people off social media, there has to be something else for them to do. This worked for me in the 80s.

Beautiful. youtu.be/FSPq4AZ2GAI?...

From the pain of apartheid to luscious beauty: 10 of the best recordings by jazz legend Abdullah Ibrahim

Oh no another of my favourite artists lost to the world this week. I was lucky enough to see him live several times. Such beautiful rhythm and harmonies in his music, which thankfully is still with us. RiP Abdullah Ibrahim.

I am very much with Norman on this one.

Am still in a more Hockney than football mood. I was lucky to be at a meeting in Cambridge when the Fitzwilliam exhibition was on in 2022. It really opened my eyes to his insights into perspective and how we see the world. This lecture by Martin Kemp is worth a watch. youtu.be/mKTNACp1bwo?...

Wild daisies. Are more interesting than football.

Community is the antidote to fascism.

Buttercup loveliness on the old landfill site.

Oh, the news of Hockney's death has proper made me cry. I just loved his work, his attitude to life and his celebration of Yorkshire. This simple print is one of my favourites. Meh.

Khan's political integrity in the face of opposition even from inside Labour has really paid off here. Not for himself probably, but for the people living and moving through London. 👏

45 years ago today. In case you weren't already feeling old. I bought the 12 inch which is worth a bit now. It feels like we need an equivalent of the Two Tone movement just now. Where is it?

++Launching TOMORROW++ Carbon Brief's brand new fortnightly newsletter called 'Cited' It will summarise the past 14 days of new climate research that you need to know about. We are trawling through all the key journals so you don't have to. Make sure you sign up in time... bit.ly/4erDOv4

Question, should I stop at a zebra crossing to let delivery robot cross?

Bigging up another Leeds band this morning. The Haggis Horns were on fire in Shipley last night. Just a vibrant wall of funk and maybe the sharpest brass section around?

For the first time in 130 years Denmark will not have an agriculture minister. In their place will be a minister for nature and animal welfare.

Waymos in California are driving around empty almost half the time. As with Uber-Lyft, all that mileage is new congestion compared to everyone driving alone OR using transit/bike/walk. findingspress.org/article/1618...