21st July 2023
Trees are valuable because they provide a home or habitat for so many other creatures – beetles and insects, birds, and small mammals, as well as plants such as lichen and moss. Planting a tree established a whole new ecosystem.
Category: Uncategorized
Green Tau: issue 73
21st July 2023
The importance of transition pathways to net zero: part 1 – the Government
The spread of extreme heat waves across the globe only reinforces the urgency that surrounds climate action. These extreme temperatures which are affecting both land and sea are a result of greenhouse gases we have already released into the atmosphere. These extreme weather events are here to stay, and if we do not curb emissions, their frequency and intensity will increase. If life on earth is to remain tolerably liveable, then we must reach both the halving of emissions by 2030 and the 2050 net zero target, as established in the 2015 Paris Agreement. All nations who are signatories to the Agreement are expected to deliver. As part of that process there need to be transition plans or route maps or in the case of the UK, Carbon Budgets, that detail how to get from here to there.
In the UK the 2008 Climate Change Act set up the Climate Change Committee which is tasked with producing five yearly carbon budgets for the Government, and with producing an annual progress report. The budget as presented as advice for the Government to review and enshrine in law. So far all the CCC’s recommendations have been followed. The first three budgets (for 2008-23) were set in 2008 and the fourth (for 2023-27) in 2011. NB The twelve year lead in period is there to give those making investments time to respond. The fifth carbon budget was set in 2016. The original 2008 target was an overall cut in greenhouse gas emissions of at least 80 per cent by 2050, relative to 1990. However, in 2019 this was replaced with a target of achieving net zero emissions by 2050 and this is reflected in the more exacting sixth carbon budget issued in 2020. (https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/explainers/what-are-carbon-budgets-and-why-do-we-have-them/)
Currently then, we in the UK are embarking on the era of the Fourth Carbon Budget. At the same time we should be seeing investment already in place for the Fifth Carbon budget, as well as seeing new investment policies being put in place to meet the Sixth Carbon Budget. At anyone time the UK should be benefitting from emissions reductions arising from the current Budget, investing in the infrastructure for the next Budget/s, and developing policies to implement these Budgets.
To date the targets of all of the first three Carbon Budgets have been met. In part this was due to a reduction of economic activity over the period (most notably during the covid pandemic) coupled with rising fuel prices which depressed demand (again largely influenced by external factors such as the war in Ukraine). The pandemic has contributed a further plus factor in changing the commuting patterns and lowering to small degree traffic levels. In addition a number of the winters have been warmer than expected.
Meeting these targets has also been eased by a global shift towards renewable energy (sparked by the worries of oil running out and the ever increasing cost of oil and gas) and by a similarly motivated shift towards more energy efficient appliances and equipment (including more energy efficient vehicles). Hereon success in meeting future targets will rely far more on the skill with which forward thinking investments and comprehensive plans have been implemented over the last decade or more to attain these targets. Transitioning to a world where, for example, all energy comes from renewable sources, where every home functions like a passive house, where active travel is the norm and public transport provides a comprehensive service, does not happen overnight. It needs advance planning and investment. If energy is to come from renewable sources then wind farms needed to built. If homes are to upgraded to passive house standard, then a workforce is needed to install insulation and triple glazing. If active travel is to increase then safe cycle and pedestrian routes need to be put in place with nighttime lighting. If the public transport network is to be comprehensive, more bus routes need to be open up, buses bought and staff recruited. To achieve the transition we need, we are reliant on both the Government and business leaders.
Each year the CCC provides Parliament with a Progress Report. In the introduction to this year’s, Lord Deben wrote: “In this report, we comment on a curious situation. This year, the Government has published more detail on their climate programme than ever before, cajoled to do so by the Courts. But Ministers seem less willing to put that programme at the centre of their stated aims. Our confidence in the achievement of the UK’s 2030 target and the Fifth and Sixth Carbon Budgets has markedly declined from last year.” https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Progress-in-reducing-UK-emissions-2023-Report-to-Parliament.pdf
This is concern is echoed throughout the report, for example: “However our confidence in the UK meeting the 2030 NDC [‘nationally determined contribution’ being each nation’s contribution to reducing global emissions in line with the Paris Agreement] and the Sixth Carbon Budget (2033-2037) has decreased since last year … whilst we would expect policies to be less developed for targets further away in time, the NDC is now only seven years away.”
The Report (pages 2, 28 & 31) lists the areas where the Government’s lack of planning and investment is materially affecting the chances of meeting the targets of Sixth Carbon Budget. For example:
- Land use – the Government needs to formulate a policy framework, and there needs to be an urgent scaling up of land use mitigation measures such as tree planting and peatland restoration.
- Buildings – rapid pursuit of zero carbon standards for new builds, and energy efficiency improvements for existing buildings.
- Electricity – a commitment to the Government’s own plans to decarbonise the electric supply system by 2030 (giving confidence to would-be investors) and a rebalancing of the relative costs of gas and electricity.
- Just transition – using fiscal and policy levers to ensure low-carbon choices are an affordable option for everyone.
- Green workforce – this needs to be grown; a commitment to the green economy would be a string signal to the private sector.
- Waste – greater emphasis needs to be given to waste prevention; equally reliance should not be placed on using waste as a source of energy.
- Industrial emissions – these need to be reduced by 69% by 2035 relative to 2022. Government needs to be do more to accelerate decarbonisation- eg through accelerating the electrification of industrial heat (blast furnaces and similar).
- Aviation – no new airport expansion.
- Fossil fuels – no new oil and gas without stringent tests; presumption against coal.
This week as I was sat outside Parliament as part of the Earth Vigil, I was questioned, ‘What was it that we were asking of the Government’? A good question to which the simplest answer might be to do what it’s advisers, The Climate Change Committee, recommends.
Counting on … day 1.133
20th July 2023
Thinking about the value of trees, this comes from a Guardian article earlier in the year.
“Heatwaves tend to be the deadliest type of extreme weather, the scientists…
Roop Singh, at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, said: “The results of the study indicate the need to work more urgently to put in place adaptations known to reduce heat-related mortality.” Lisbon, for example, has reduced the city heat-island effect by increasing the area covered by green spaces and water features.
Counting on … day 1.132
19th July 2023
Today I signed a petition organised by Friends of the Earth calling on the government to plant more trees to help us adapt our environment to cope with increasing summer temperatures. Not only will these trees provide shade, they will also help the local ecosystem cope with extremes of rainfall absorbing excess rainfall in the soil against times of drought and slowing the flow of waters in times of potential flooding.
This may be a good prompt to plan to plant another tree in our own garden (if we have the space), or maybe to sponsor a tree via organisations such as the Woodlands Trust, the National Trust, Trees for Life, and even via the NHS which is planting a nationwide NHS forest.
Counting on … day 1.131
18th July 2023
What should the fossil fuel industries be doing?
Christina Figueres, former Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, diplomat and renowned climate leader, says “Let’s remember what the industry could and should be doing with those trillions of dollars: stepping away from any new oil and gas exploration, investing heavily into renewable energies and accelerating carbon capture and storage technologies to clean up existing fossil fuel use. Also, cutting methane emissions from the entire production line, abating emissions along their value chain and facilitating access to renewable energy for those still without electricity who number in their millions.”
Counting on … day 1.130
17th July 2023
Earlier I wrote about the bee hotel in our garden and its high level of occupancy (https://greentau.org/2023/05/21/counting-on-day-1-117-2/)
I have since read in the RSPB magazine that the bee larvae won’t hatch out until next spring and that to protect them against the cold, it is a good idea to put the bee hotel in a shed or porch over the winter, before returning the hotel to its outside location in the spring.
6th Sunday after Trinity, Proper 10
16th July 2023
Reflection (readings are below)
Last week’s reflection looked at what makes people good, what helps us do the good things we know and want to do. Ultimately the answer is in our relationship with God. In accepting God, trusting in God, being responsive to God – letting God be at work in us.
In today’s story from Genesis we meet two people – Jacob and Esau – who are the same and yet different. They are both the children of Isaac and Rebekah, both conceived as a result of prayer. But where one pushes forward, the other is more patient. Where one is hairy, the other is smooth skinned. Where one loves hunting and the great outdoors, the other loves the quiet, orderly way of domestic life. Where one lives in the moment, the other is planning for the future. Later in the story we will learn that one is his mother’s favourite, whilst the other is his father’s favourite.
That people are different (not necessarily meaning better or worse, and actually everyone has their faults) is a repeated narrative in the Bible: Cain and Abel; Joseph and his brothers, Moses and Aaron; Peter and Paul, Mary and Martha. Being different, having different skills, different insights, living through different experiences, is key to God’s creation of the human race. When we work together utilising those diverse skills and experience life is enhanced. When we oppose each other, despise our differences, make them a means of discrimination, then life is diminished.
Another continuing narrative of the Bible is that biggest, strongest, first, is not always best. God chooses small people from small tribes, like Gideon and David. God chooses unpopular people like Jeremiah and Saul of Tarsus, and those from unpopular or despised professions like Matthew the tax collector and Rehab the prostitute. God chooses unreliable people like Thomas and Peter. God chooses insignificant people like Ruth and Mary. God chooses outsiders like Abraham the Aramean and Cornelius the Gentile. We might say that God chooses upside down values that are not the way of the world. The first shall be last. The rock that was discarded will become the corner stone.
The last verse from the Genesis reading could be translated as ‘He did not esteem primogeniture’. Maybe there was more to Esau response than just hunger.
People are different but sometimes those difference change – are even reversed – over time. Later in the story of Esau and Jacob we hear that Jacob flees fearing his brother’s anger – indeed Esau has threatened to kill him. But later yet in the story, and we see Esau full of welcome and forgiveness for his returning brother. Likewise the arch persecutor Saul becomes the ardent convert Paul. The rash and unreliable Peter becomes the strong rock. The retiring widow Judith becomes the courageous assassin. The ability to change and develop, to be adaptable and flexible are useful traits that God uses to good effect.
The working together of people who are different, the constructive use of diverse skills, the ability to change and adapt, are all going to be essential as we as a human race work with God in facing up to the climate crisis we have created, and thus working together in transitioning to a net zero carbon world And not just net zero carbon, but net zero pollution, net zero injustice, and net zero biodiversity loss too. As we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, May your kingdom – ie God’s rule, God’s reign – come on earth as in heaven.
So what then do we make of the parable in today’s Gospel? Sometimes it is called the parable of the Sower, or the parable of the seeds or even the parable of the soils. It is a parable about difference but it starts with sameness – it is the same seed that is being sown everywhere by the sower. But everywhere the seed lands is different. The parable suggests that everywhere that the seed lands, the soil has the potential to allow the seed to grow. It is not then that the soil is different but that the circumstances, the environment surrounding the soil and the seed, that determines what fruit the seed produces. These environmental factors do not give the seeds an equal chance, an equal opportunity, to flourish. Does that sound familiar? How often do we hear that people do not have successful lives because they have not had an equal opportunity to flourish? The different circumstances of their back ground, of the environment they have grown up in, has put the, at disadvantage. Their skills and characteristics have not been discerned or have been despised as unsuitable, unwanted. Maybe hearing this parable today, we should be hearing a challenge to ensure equally opportunities for all, a challenge to value diversity, a challenge to nurture flourishing for all God’s creation? Can we scare away the ‘birds’ that prey on others? Can we remove the obstacles of poor diet, low educational standards, lack of green spaces and places to exercise? Can we provide an attractive alternative to the consumer driven market? Can we in this way also experience the reign of God?
Genesis 25:19-34
These are the descendants of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, sister of Laban the Aramean. Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord granted his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived. The children struggled together within her; and she said, “If it is to be this way, why do I live?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples born of you shall be divided;
the one shall be stronger than the other,
the elder shall serve the younger.”
When her time to give birth was at hand, there were twins in her womb. The first came out red, all his body like a hairy mantle; so they named him Esau. Afterward his brother came out, with his hand gripping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.
When the boys grew up, Esau was a skilful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents. Isaac loved Esau, because he was fond of game; but Rebekah loved Jacob.
Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was famished. Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stuff, for I am famished!” (Therefore he was called Edom.) Jacob said, “First sell me your birthright.” Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank, and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
Psalm 119:105-112
105 Your word is a lantern to my feet *
and a light upon my path.
106 I have sworn and am determined *
to keep your righteous judgments.
107 I am deeply troubled; *
preserve my life, O Lord, according to your word.
108 Accept, O Lord, the willing tribute of my lips, *
and teach me your judgments.
109 My life is always in my hand, *
yet I do not forget your law.
110 The wicked have set a trap for me, *
but I have not strayed from your commandments.
111 Your decrees are my inheritance for ever; *
truly, they are the joy of my heart.
112 I have applied my heart to fulfil your statutes *
for ever and to the end.
Romans 8:1-11
There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law– indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.
Matthew 13:1-9,18-23
Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!”
“Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
Counting on … day 1.129
16th July 2023
We can be part of the solution too creating wetland areas in our gardens, on a balcony, at church or school. Wetland areas help absorb carbon dioxide. They slow the flow of water into drains and rivers helping to prevent flooding. They provide for greater biodiversity.
The WET has a guide for creating domestic wetlands from a pond in a pot to a bog garden.
Counting on …. Day 1.128
15th July 2023
Becky Speight comments in the current. RSPB magazine that we may think we are at a crossroads where we can either address the climate crisis or the biodiversity crisis, but in fact we can have both and! She writes that this future “is one where we work far more closely with nature, to mitigate and adapt to the worst effects of global warming; to help species adapt to the changes already locked into the system; and to recreate and reimagine our lives and homes as vibrant , lush, functioning and joyous places. The future could be better than today”! And chiming in with the WWT, there is much emphasis on the importance of using water to create climate resilient, biodiverse rich habitats.
Counting on …. Day 1.127
14th July 2023
Having yesterday talked about tipping points and a succession of divestment announcements, it now appears that approvals for the Rosebank oil field may be delayed.
“Rosebank, the UK’s largest undeveloped oil and gas field, is highly unlikely to be approved in time for parliamentary recess, amid growing concerns from regulators over electrification and net zero compatibility across the industry.
“City A.M. understands the site, which has to be green-lit by the Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning (OPRED) and the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), is now not expected to be sanctioned until August at the earliest….
“When completed, Rosebank is expected to produce up to 500m barrels of oil and gas equivalent over its operating lifetime – which could begin as soon as 2027. This has made the project the subject of intense controversy, with climate groups and energy transition advocates calling for the project to be rejected amid fears it would jeopardise the country’s climate ambitions.
“City A.M. has learned that the NSTA has written directly to oil and gas companies operating in the North Sea, warning them of the importance of electrification for new offshore platforms across future projects…
“Regulators are determined for new developments, including oil and gas fields, to have a clear pathway for the green energy transition – as the UK races to reach net zero over the next three decades and decarbonise its electricity grid by 2035.” https://www.cityam.com/rosebank-faces-fresh-delay-amid-regulator-concerns-over-industry-net-zero-goals/
The Green Tau 