Green Gas
Energy
Last week we launched our Green Gas for Britain report and started our campaign to change government thinking, on where Britain gets it gas. It’s something we’ve been working on for a couple of years. This is my personal perspective on that.
Ecotricity began life in 1995, born of the realisation that the conventional way of making electricity, by burning fossil fuels, was the biggest single source of climate change. Our proposed solution was a new kind of electricity, the green kind.
We were the world’s first green electricity company, and while the technology to make green electricity was relatively new, we could see a potential future where all electricity was made this way – utilizing the Wind, Sun and Sea. What we couldn’t see was a renewable alternative for gas, and for many years we held the view that we had to simply wean ourselves off of this rather versatile energy source, and shift heat loads from gas to electricity. That changed for us in 2010 when we bumped into the concept of green gas – gas made by the anaerobic digestion of organic material, which could then be ‘scrubbed up’ and put into the gas grid. It was a direct parallel to green electricity. And our missing link.
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Brexit fallout – video interview
Energy, Food, TransportHere’s an interview I did with ITV a couple of weeks ago, discussing the EU referendum result.
I still believe that a 4% margin for leave over remain is too small for such a dramatic change in our country’s relationship with the EU – especially because the pledges made by Johnson, Farage and Gove about the NHS and immigration have turned out to be lies.
We’re going to end up with a worse deal by leaving rather than remaining in the EU, so I hope that once the Brexit plan has been finalised, a second referendum will be called and people can decide if that’s really what they want for our country.
Guest post: Can eating less meat really tackle climate change?
Food
I came across this article the other day.
It’s by Mike Berners-Lee and it’s a very different approach to the subject of food efficiency.
I’ve seen a lot of statistics on this issue, mostly around the amount of plant protein it takes to produce animal protein – for example 10kg of plant protein to make 1kg of Beef. That’s at the top end of the figures but Beef is always the worst performer with Chicken and Fish at the more efficient end of the scale – but still taking more protein in than they give back.
Mike comes at this in a way I’ve not seen before and I thought it was worth sharing.
Cheers
Guest post: Can eating less meat really tackle climate change?
Mike Berners-Lee
With the food system accounting for up to a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, anything that reduces its impact will make a big difference to the climate.
It is a system riddled with inefficiencies and waste. Humans don’t simply eat food straight out of the ground, of course. It’s harvested, stored, processed – or fed to animals who are in turn slaughtered and processed – and finally packaged and delivered. Each of these stages uses energy, which means emissions.
In very rough terms, the world grows about 6,000 calories per person a day in edible crop harvest. That is about three times the 2,000 calories a day that end up getting to be eaten by humans. This would be enough to feed everyone if we shared it round perfectly, which we don’t, so some people go hungry while others eat more than is good for them.
So what happens to the massive 4,000 calories per day gap between field and fork and what has this got to do with going vegetarian or even vegan?
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Guest Post: 120 days with a BMW i3
Transport
One of our customers and member of Climate Friendly Bradford on Avon shared his experience of driving an Electric Vehicle with us and we thought you might like to read it.
Things have moved on greatly since this blog started posting about EVs, not least Ecotricity’s national network of Electricity ‘Pumps’ – the Electric Highway – it’s great to read some real-world experiences of production cars.
Anyway, over to Adrian…
On Sunday I was listening to the relaxing hum of electricity filling my electric vehicle (EV) while thinking how much my motoring life had changed in the last 12 months. This time last year, I was standing at a petrol station in Canada filling my V8 Mustang with 60 litres of dirty fossil fuel. Now I am “filling” my car with green electricity at an Ecotricity fast charger. (more…)
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