A Green Degree Blog: New Angles On Sustainability

November 26th 2012

The London Climate Forum: The Best Bits (Inc. Talk Of Treason!)

The London Climate Forum, not something I can honestly say I’d ever heard of prior to joining Imperial College just over 2 months ago, but in many ways, I’m unsure as to how I never got wind of it in the first place. In short, it is a fascinating, insightful and cutting-edge forum which anybody interested in climate and sustainability, even those who aren’t, should endeavour to get involved with.

For those, like me initially, who are not clued up at all on this project, let me provide a brief summary. The London Climate Forum is an entirely student-led and organised conference based within Imperial College, and is the biggest in London, and quite possibly the country in terms of size, attendance and speakers welcomed to the stage. It runs over just two days, Saturday and Sunday, but offers up some serious clout with it’s multiple leading thinkers in the worlds of sustainability, business, policy and academia, all of whom grasp the opportunity to reach out to the new generation of green ‘ecowarriors’ in an attempt to inspire the next big thing(s).

The Forum’s goal? To speak directly to those who are on the frontier of the climate agenda across a wide variety of sectors, whilst entertaining the chance that through events like these, the solutions we so desperately seek in solving climate change may be nurtured within it’s walls. So it’s a modest goal to say the least…but one which we are all highly invested in, and one which was in full swing this weekend as the Forum was expertly carried out.

I wanted to, as succinctly as I feel possible doing, summarise some of the major talking points and stances which the stage was party to over the weekend just past, just to scratch the surface of some of the subjects covered. And trust me, there were many, so bare with me!

Day One

The first day was mostly focused on the present; what the current climate is doing, why it is doing this, what we are currently (mostly not) doing to mitigate it, and how business is adapting to tackle the myriad new challenges such change is bringing about. Two eminent and, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind me saying this, highly outspoken campaigners filled the morning, in the form of Tony Juniper and Tom Burke, the latter part of a panel trio who, combined with the director of our very own Grantham Institute, painted a rather desperate and somewhat depressing picture of a story we all have unfortunately come to know intimately.

Don’t Worry, Content Is On Its Way!

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Hello to anybody out there who actually still reads this little project of mine, or to those who stumbled across it as of this post, or to pretty much anyone who glimpses this page, I have an update on the massive lack of content there has been on the site for a good 2 weeks now!

Firstly, there is more on it’s way, don’t you worry (if you even did…), I don’t plan on dropping this blog for anything, but every now and then life gets just that bit too busy for any real quality posts to be published.

In this case, that busyness is due to me just having started a masters degree at Imperial College in good old London, studying the only thing I really care for, the environment! I’m 2 weeks into this mega course and haven’t had any spare time to just sit down, get angry about something in the news and write up a rant about it, but things are finally starting to settle down.

The house is still in dire need of furniture, heating and fixed doorknobs, and the process of making new friends and breaking multiple blocks of ice is consuming most of my free time, but amidst this madness sits one of the best courses on environmental topics the country can pretty much offer (I’m excited and privileged to say the least!) and I’m loving every single second of it.

For those of you who are still reading, and interested in the nitty gritty of what my course actually entails, here’s a brief but hopefully informative executive summary. Environmental Technology is its name, although ‘technology’ in the sense of the practical application of science and policy to solve some of the most pressing matters of our age (cliched eh). So we cover what seems to be everything on the broad topic, such as environmental economics, policy and law, pollution, ecology, the philosophy of it all, all the way down to good old statistics and development. It’s a big one to say the least.

Going further still, I chose my optional module to focus entirely on Energy Policy, with intricate studies of each and every form of energy generation available to us, the good and bad, how we use them, how we implement them and what policies drive them forwards. This is the subject I look forward to the most by a wind-farm filled country mile.

So effectively, this post is just to confirm that ‘A Green Degree’ isn’t dead, not yet anyway, and will, if anything, be rising from the posting drought a much more well-informed, well written and more confident medium, with this mammoth of a masters course injecting a little extra class and professionalism it was deeply lacking.

So for now, keep your eyes on this space, a new post will be with you in the next few days, and enjoy living the good green life!

James Beioley

Posted at 6:57pm and tagged with: blog, university, masters, Environment, imperial college, london, information, confident, posting, green, technology, lectures, energy, policy, law, pollution, economics, ecology,.

May 27th 2012

UK Energy Policy Takes Yet Another Muddled Route - Solar Cut By 50%

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UK energy policy is sure one confusing and constantly changing subject, with many recent news stories no deviation from this pattern. Us English and our government just love mixing and muddling our energy futures as much as we cash, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, and sometimes it seems like it’s just for the kicks.

A little over half a year ago, I went to an open day for a course in environmental technology, energy and renewables at Imperial College London, and there I was given a brief talk regarding one of the key course options, aptly named ‘Energy Policy’. This was all very interesting and the main reason I intend to do a master there, but there was one particular comment which stuck with me, made by the course convenor.

He stated halfway through his introduction that, as a whole, “the UK government has tried every single energy policy ever thought of, and failed at most of them”. I feel this comment is pretty appropriate given the latest news on that very subject, of which I’ll brush over below.

Of late, the UK government and David Cameron have come to the decision to cut the solar feed-in-tariffs (FiTs) which are music to every solar-owner ears, which effectively pay the user for producing clean solar energy and feeding it back into the grid. This once sat at 21p per KWh, but is set to drop to 16p by August 1st, with similar drops on a 3 monthly basis, until the price is either frozen or adjusted once more.

This idea has provoked a stern response from many consumers of solar energy, who feel that these uncertain prices and abrupt slashes will deeply hurt the UK solar industry, which as we all know, is absolutely booming, both here and globally, and would be detrimental to everyone. However, these cuts must be made if the government is to be financially able to continue providing such FiTs, although many could argue their seemingly pointless endeavours into fossil fuel and nuclear could easily be rerouted to this sector.

On the other hand, this new FiT is still highly competitive in the global market, and as we’ve seen in Germany, has continued to drive strong growth in solar sales and installations, and so we shouldn’t be too hasty to condemn it.