What a great piece! This just gets better and better as you read. prospect.org/2025/12/11/s...

Here's this week's Substack wrap. It has links to all the FTAV posts you may have missed, as well as a bunch of other stuff. substack.com/home/post/p-...

The challenge climate poses to the insurance industry is becoming clearer, but for the industry to respond it needs to think and act differently - working with others to trigger systemic responses. Do read our latest report supported by ClimateWise on this: www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/news-and-res...

Our annual deep dive on China’s climate transition is out! China’s CO₂ emissions are set to remain flat for a second year in 2025. Record additions of solar and wind, accelerating electrification, and declining construction-material demand are the main drivers.

3. The industry knows that words are important. If Moses had been obliged by labelling laws to promise the Israelites a land of mammary secretions and insect vomit, I doubt many would have followed him into Canaan, though these are accurate descriptions of milk and honey. 3/6

1. The European Parliament’s attempt to ban plant-based foods from being sold as “sausages”, “burgers” etc is a direct response to livestock industry lobbying. This is a short thread on how utterly bleeding ridiculous it is. 🧵1/6

Across regulated industries there has been a step change in the past 16 months. Solar farms left as proposals for years were signed off in weeks. We haven’t completed a new reservoir in 30 years despite the population growing by 10m. This government’s signed off 9

Because streaming has wiped out the marginal revenue from people using services more there’s no current incentive to build a bridge which can turn casuals into heavy media consumers, which is the element that’s really missing IMO

Will Hutton has a good stab at it here observer.co.uk/news/opinion....

This blog post by Helen Toner (well-known by some for a stint on the OpenAI board) is *really really* interesting because it is the first thing I've read by someone in Frontier AI that starts to get to grips with sociotechnical concerns open.substack.com/pub/helenton...

'this'll make you laugh'

Not long until the Green Party's production of a Christmas Carol! Follow the link to the Crowdfunder and here's some exclusive BTS footage:

Mark Carney managed to trade a pipeline that will never get built for meaningful progress on industrial carbon pricing and electricity interties — both of which will get more wind and solar built. Remember when people thought he wasn't good at politics? www.nationalobserver.com/2025/11/27/o...

Big fear for the Budget was the green transition. ✅ Heat pump funding remains. ✅ VAT remains on gas. ✅ Support for EVs extended. ✅ Renewable charges removed from electricity. 🤷🏻‍♂️ EV per-mile charge - barrier to entry as in NZ? 🤷🏻‍♂️ North Sea drilling 🤷🏻‍♂️ Fuel duty increase. U-turn likely? Ok overall.

Key chart for public services Govt is back to pencilling in undeliverable plans to hit its fiscal rules After taking out likely funding for protected areas, other departments will have to absorb 3.3% annual real terms cuts. That includes prisons, courts, and local govt, among others

We’re an hour or two from the budget being delivered but if you want to read something about what it might and should include please do check out this piece from me www.sustainableviews.com/high-stakes-...

Cutting home insulation funding will imperil UK’s climate goals, Reeves told

🌍 “Multilateral agreements are difficult but this was a process that really mattered" Listen Eliot Whittington on why #COP30 still matters Times Radio 👉https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I5P7svqOKg&feature=youtu.be#COP30utm_source=hootsuite

Properly moving xkcd xkcd.com/3172/

Excellent essay

Start your Sunday off right and read this. There is also music sprinkled in to listen to!

that's not 'he's just a cheery chap to whom nothing bad has ever happened'. that's incredible emotional discipline, to force yourself not to give in to despair. he's a grafter, is the thing, he just keeps on working. sing-songs in a Japanese prison!

The pre-Budget messaging on climate policy has been so confusing. Extra money for EV subsidies, but a pay-per-mile charge that doesn’t hit fossil fuel cars? Limiting cycle-to-work schemes? Maybe slash fuel poverty funding, maybe cut heat pump subsidies? It has made the industry very nervous.

Great thread

Play the man’s horse game what is wrong with you

Join the Society's Climate Change Research Group for an online expert panel discussion 🎦👏 'COP 30: what just happened?' will take place on Tuesday 25 November, featuring contributions from Eliot Whittington, Anna Aberg and Angus McNelly. Register to attend 👉 https://bit.ly/4pfZs8m

I don't think we should have every scenario that we assess being a scenario where emissions go down. We are not heading for the super high-end SSP5-85, but that does not mean emissions are following SSP2-45 as many assume. We need to explore the uncertainties on where we are heading much more. 5/

Other points: * The IEA should have found another name, "Reversed Policies Scenario" or "Stalled Policies Scenario"? * Have we, at a statistical significant level, deviated from the IEA pre-Paris baseline? * The CPS is not that different to the STEPS... 6/6

🌱 Spain’s community energy revolution is spreading! From Taradell to Galicia, cooperatives are providing cheap, clean electricity to homes, including low-income families, while promoting local ownership and fighting fuel poverty. We love to see a community-led energy transition 🤩

Have been saying this for ages. An as yet undetermined % of Tory voters are anxious about Farage / Reform. How they vote at the next GE could determine the outcome.

Suppose we got more good news over the next few years, which I think is perfectly possible... What we seem to have learned is that it will quite quickly come under pressure to be used on tax or spend. Now, as a voter I can quite see that as good. But it surely isn't what these bond buyers want 3/

Facing three stakeholder groups - the gilts, the spending side, the tax side - the promise to prioritise fiscal stability has to mean that when some good news comes up, the first of these gets some priority. This week suggests it doesn't, compared to pressure on the other two 2/

Terrific, thought-provoking piece by @chrisdillow.bsky.social:

It is actually quite stunning how dramatic the improvement in quality at @newstatesman1913.bsky.social has been since @tommctague.bsky.social took over.

www.cam.ac.uk/stories/COP3... Great overview of the Cambridge presence at #COP30

they did it they actually managed to kick the can down the road again. amazing www.politico.eu/article/fina...

on.ft.com/49fMPW2 The 2mn barrel divide: IEA and Opec at odds over oil demand

I'm thrilled to announce I'm returning to the New Statesman as Political Editor in November. 🥳 An honour to step into @andrewmarr.bsky.social's legendary shoes as he becomes editor-at-large. Can't wait to get started with @tommctague.bsky.social and the whole team!

Government has published one of those quiet but important documents that might get overlooked as it is not 'newsy'. The headline finding is that £1 of public R&D investment generates £8 in net economic benefits for the UK over the long term www.gov.uk/government/p...

I keep being told spending cuts are easy. Honest proposals such as those recently outlined by Policy Exchange show they are not My column www.ft.com/content/f086...

Has anyone done any work - or had any thoughts - about how the changes in advertising might change the actual products we buy? Do we buy the same stuff under a regime of google/meta/amazon ads than we would under traditional TV and print advertising?

📣THREAD: It’s surprising to me that so many people were surprised to learn that Signal runs partly on AWS (something we can do because we use encryption to make sure no one but you–not AWS, not Signal, not anyone–can access your comms). It’s also concerning. 1/

43. Data centers are increasing power demand, but let's keep a sense of proportion. BNEF estimates total electricity demand from data centers of 373TWh in 2024 (1.2% of global generation) and expects this to increase to 1,596TWh (4.4% of global) in 2035. (www.bnef.com/themes/t0hlz... )

40. There are signs that solar is reducing fossil fuel burn in poorer countries, for example Pakistan — which has no significant government support for solar but has built over 25GW just in response to high prices for power and fuel for irrigation.

38. Ordinary people have no idea how much progress we’ve made. Tell people at parties that UK carbon emissions in 2023 were at their lowest level since 1879, for example. Most developed economies are now reducing carbon emissions without lowering quality of life.

36. We’re finally getting serious about net zero carbon. Getting that last 5-20% of carbon out of power will be hard, and require some expensive solutions. The first 80-95% is easy-ish but we're getting on with it.

30. Decarbonizing aviation is really hard. The CEO of Lufthansa said in 2023 that running its fleet on sustainable aviation fuel made from electricity would take half Germany’s current electricity demand. BNEF thinks this an underestimate.

25. To put it another way: when you tell an energy future model to optimise a power portfolio for clean power adequacy, it will give you more wind and less solar than when you tell it to optimise a least-cost electricity sector development.

24. We oughtta be building more wind. Seriously, solar will get built anyway, but wind needs some help, and wind blows in the dark and in the winter. It doesn’t help that solar pushes down power prices and generates renewable energy credits (where relevant), which hurts wind farm economics.