Climate Solutions  //   ISSUE  # 99   //   HOTHOUSE 2.0 With the news of the devastation that Hurricane Helene has wrought on the lower quadrant of the eastern seaboard, we’re thinking of our readers in the disaster area and hoping for your safety. As the east coast reckons with a Category 4 hurricane, […]

This was created to provide resources to those who are experiencing climate or ecological grief. This guide includes the following types of resources: Articles/Handbooks Books Other Resources Podcasts Support Groups Videos Articles/Handbooks  Climate Doom to Messy Hope: Climate Healing & Resilience: A Practical Handbook for Climate Educators and Community Published by the UBC Climate Hub […]

Climate change news often focuses on the negative effects on our communities. These news stories often provoke feelings of sorrow and can increase our climate grief. This resource list is intended to provide outlets that focus on the positive effects that environmental advocates are having on our planet. It is also meant to inspire communities […]

Antarctic sea ice has reached its maximum extent for the year, clocking in at the second lowest in a record stretching back to 1979, according to provisional data from the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC).  Over the past two years, Antarctic sea ice has been “way outside anything we have witnessed in […]

Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed. An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change. This week Farewell to coal 142 YEARS: The UK’s “142-year history of coal-fired electricity” ended on Monday as the UK’s last coal power station, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, turned off its turbines for the final time, reported the Guardian. The UK is […]

At COP28 in Dubai last November, countries agreed specific global targets on adaptation for the first time.  This marked a significant step forward for the “global goal on adaptation” (GGA) work programme, which was established in 2015, but has seen little progress over the subsequent years. The GGA framework agreed last year sets out targets […]

As global temperatures rise, vast swathes of the global population are experiencing heat extremes that they have never faced before. In some parts of the world, exposure to extreme heat is breaching survival limits for even the healthiest people. Heat-related deaths have increased rapidly in recent decades. But the risks of extreme heat are even […]

英国最后一座燃煤发电厂——诺丁汉郡的索尔河畔拉特克利夫火电厂（Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station）——于10月关闭，标志着英国142年燃煤发电时代的终结。 英国逐步淘汰煤电在国际上意义重大。它是首个实现这一里程碑的主要经济体，也是首个G7成员国。1882年，英国在伦敦霍尔本高架桥（Holborn Viaduct）上建成了世界上第一座燃煤发电厂。 上微信关注《碳简报》 Carbon Brief的分析显示，从1882年到索尔河畔拉特克利夫火电厂关闭，英国的燃煤电厂共燃烧了46亿吨煤炭，排放了104亿吨二氧化碳（CO2），这比大多数国家从所有来源产生的CO2都多。 英国对煤电的逐步淘汰，将有助于推动煤炭总需求达到17世纪以来的最低水平。 逐步淘汰建立在四个关键要素之上：替代电源的可用性、结束新煤炭产能建设、定价外部因素，以及明确和长期的政府政策。 随着英国致力于到2030年实现电力行业的完全脱碳，其在努力为气候行动建立另一个成功范例方面，既面临挑战，又面临机遇。 英国何时开始使用煤电？ 长期以来，英国的资源禀赋就包括丰富的煤炭，但几个世纪以来煤炭的使用量一直很少。煤炭用于发电的时间要晚得多。 最早的蒸汽机从1700年左右开始使用。它通过燃煤将水从矿井中抽出，以便开采更深的煤矿。 这些蒸汽机的效率非常低，但詹姆斯·瓦特（James Watt）和乔治·史蒂文森（George Stevenson）等发明家对蒸汽机进行了改进，使煤的使用更加经济，也更广泛。 如下图所示，经历了上述过程，英国的煤炭使用量开始激增，为工业革命、大英帝国以及全球CO2排放量的激增提供了动力。 格拉斯哥大学（University of Glasgow）经济与社会史高级讲师、《煤炭之乡：战后苏格兰去工业化的意义和记忆》（Coal Country: The Meaning and Memory of Deindustrialization in Postwar Scotland）一书作者伊万·吉布斯（Ewan Gibbs）博士在接受Carbon Brief采访时说：“从英国工业革命的发展历程来看，煤炭对英国19世纪的工业经济发展绝对举足轻重。钢铁工业由煤炭提供动力。在18世纪晚期，当然也包括19世纪上半叶，英国成为了煤炭大国。这是世界上第一个以煤炭为动力的经济体。” 1810年，英国开始用煤生产城镇燃气以用于照明。从1830年开始，随着英国扩张其蜿蜒的铁路网，煤炭被用来提供燃料。 1882年，煤第一次被用来发电供公众使用。同年1月，世界上第一座燃煤发电厂在伦敦霍尔本高架桥开始运行。 除了工业能源之外，这些新用途（包括供热、照明和运输）推动了英国煤炭使用量的急剧上升。需求量从1800年的1490万吨增长到1900年的1.726亿吨，增长了十多倍。 在此期间，英国各地纷纷开设了小型燃煤发电厂。 到1920年，英国的燃煤发电量达到4TWh，满足了全国97%的电力需求，其中大部分来自工厂。 在整个20世纪上半叶，英国的煤炭使用量持续增长。到1956年英国煤炭使用量达到2.21亿吨的峰值时，燃煤发电量仍然只占需求量的一小部分。炼钢、工业、城镇燃气、家庭供热和铁路占据了主导地位。 在20世纪下半叶，除电力外，所有这些用途的煤炭使用量都急剧下降。 这一时期英国煤炭使用量下降的原因，包括北海天然气的出现和蒸汽铁路的终结，以及日益加剧的全球化和去工业化。 战后煤炭使用量下降的另一个关键因素是，到1950年代，煤炭燃烧对环境的影响已变得过于显著和危险，不容忽视。 1952年伦敦烟雾事件已知造成约4000人死亡，实际死亡人数可能更多。 为此，英国议会颁布了《1956年清洁空气法令》（1956 Clean Air Act）。这从法律层面禁止了“烟雾滋扰”或“黑烟”，并对新熔炉的排放设定了限制。1968年，有关排放的法律得到进一步加强。 在随后的几十年里，随着更便宜和清洁的替代能源开始取代煤炭，家庭用暖、铁路运输和工业用煤持续减少。  在这些年里，城市的小型燃煤电厂也逐渐转为靠近煤矿的农村大型发电厂。虽然英国也是核电的先驱，但直到1957年，煤炭在年发电量中的占比才首次降至90%以下。 1960至1964年间，中央电力局（Central Electricity Generating Board）公布了兴建10座燃煤电厂的计划，一批新燃煤电厂随之在1966年至1972年间投运。 这些项目的建设使煤电装机容量在1974年攀升至57.5吉瓦（GW）的历史峰值。几年后的1980年，燃煤发电量达到212TWh的峰值。 英国最后一个新建燃煤发电厂位于德拉克斯（Drax），该厂于1975年投运，当时的装机容量为2GW，但在1986年翻番至4GW。 […]

Snot ran down my nose, and my ears burned – exhaling a wisp of steam into gray, still air. As I whipped through the wind, floating above the black-slick road I noticed the light, dim and translucent. I knew the afternoon would be pastel-tinted sunsets and frostbit toes. I peddled harder, seeing the absence of […]

Two years after coming to a historic agreement to “halt and reverse” nature loss, countries are preparing to gather in Cali, Colombia for the latest round of UN biodiversity talks. The COP16 biodiversity summit – officially, the 16th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity – will run from 21 October to […]

Despite progress since the Paris Agreement, a peak in greenhouse gas emissions is only just within sight – and time is fast running out to stay below 1.5C of human-caused global warming since the preindustrial era. As a result, almost all pathways that keep 1.5C within reach now involve a temporary “overshoot”.  This term refers to […]

Welcome to Carbon Brief’s Cropped. We handpick and explain the most important stories at the intersection of climate, land, food and nature over the past fortnight. This is an online version of Carbon Brief’s fortnightly Cropped email newsletter. Subscribe for free here. Key developments Poor showing for national biodiversity plans COP16 COMING UP: Just 10% of countries […]

Record-breaking sea temperatures across the Gulf of Mexico have been a key ingredient behind some of the intense hurricanes devastating the region this year. Last month, Hurricane Helene made landfall on Florida’s “Big Bend” and then stalled over several states to the north dumping “enormous rainfall totals”, resulting in epic flooding which killed at least […]

Anything worth achieving is hard. It requires dedication, focus, and perseverance. And sometimes a little luck. Osprey Wilds’ clean energy focus began 20 years ago. Yet, it wasn’t until this fall with the addition of a 716 kilowatt (kW) solar photovoltaic system that we finally reached our goal of producing 100% of our electricity on-site […]

Astrid Schomaker is the new executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Schomaker, who is German, was previously the director for green diplomacy and multilateralism with the European Commission.  She took over as the UN’s biodiversity chief in July this year, just months out from the major UN biodiversity summit, COP16, which will […]

A hydrogen fuel cell forklift truck from Toyota at the opening of a new hydrogen fuelling station at Teesside International Airport in January (image credit: Toyota UK). A report from logistics specialist Toyota Material Handling (UK) indicates priorities and directions for the logistics industry, given the required trajectory of emissions reduction. The document has also […]