Category Archives: Uncategorized

Negotiations with MP supporters of the Local Electricity Bill amendments, deleted by government from the Energy Bill, have resulted in the government creating the Community Energy Fund of £10m over 2 years to help identify and develop projects in England. Once admin and running costs are deducted the fund will be £9m. At the conference last week, Olivia Blunn, Head of Local Energy PolicyContinue reading “Community Energy Fund – latest news”

Being open to the limitations of their knowledge can help researchers to foster interdisciplinary and cross-cultural collaborations. When Ike de la Peña encountered a lack of energy, even an air of disinterest, on a Zoom meeting, he did the opposite of taking control. He exercised humility. De la Peña, a research pharmacologist at Loma LindaContinue reading “Engaged in collaborative research? Try a touch of intellectual humility.”

There is a growing appetite for the development of community energy programmes across the UK. Currently over 400 proactive programmes exist in the UK according to Community Energy England’s State of the Sector report, which  have generated over £3 million of community benefits. In Derbyshire there are currently five second stage 1 Rural Community Energy FundedContinue reading “Celebrating the Community Energy Pioneers in Derbyshire”

Transformation Moment – can Britain make it to the Age of Clean? Preface This pamphlet is a ‘Call to Arms’. It comes at a time of confused and divisive global politics, accelerating climate damage and a dangerous retreat into tribal answers to international problems. The UK’s contribution has been to add to the confusion. Britain’s BrexitContinue reading “Transformation Moment”

Greenwashing is a form of climate action delay so deepening our understanding may be the first step to preventing it. Or at least being able to call it out. And that is exactly what financial think thank Planet Tracker has done. Its new report deciphers six types of greenwashing: Greencrowding: hiding in a crowd ofContinue reading “Some Further thoughts on Green Washing”

Humanity is well into the Anthropocene , the proposed new geological epoch where human pressures have put the Earth system on a trajectory moving rapidly away from the stable Holocene state of the past 12,000 years, which is the only state of the Earth system we have evidence of being able to support the world asContinue reading “SAFE AND JUST EARTH SYSTEMS”

Maze: Is Growth a False God? Is Growth a False God? is an episode of the Radio 4 programme Moral Maze broadcast on 22nd March 2023. Presented by Michael Buerk, the programme has an unusual format where four semi-regular panelists question and elicit testimony from several invited guests representing opposite sides of an argument. I’ve never been a bigContinue reading “GDP growth – the Emperor has no clothes”

A paper archived in my files by Steve Sterling Education is a slow learner. The increasingly apparent conditions of uncertainty, complexity, and threat across systems, not least exemplified by the ‘triple crunch’ of peak oil, climate change and financial instability – and the urgency of the quest for sustainability – call for a matching andContinue reading “Towards sustainable education”

You may have heard the term ‘VUCA environment’ – one that is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous – mentioned recently. The acronym has its roots in Opens in new windowmilitary discourse but is increasingly relevant to our day-to-day lives. From global climate change and the pandemic to Brexit and war in Europe, we are exposed to aContinue reading “How to help students meet the demands of an increasingly complex and rapidly changing society.”