🌱 The Grumpy Optimists #106

Happy Monday. 👋

Welcome back to another episode of The Grumpy Optimists, your weekly recap of positive climate news.

Here’s a quick overview of what we’re covering this week. Let’s dig in!

🐙 Octopus Energy have made a heat pump that could be free for some homes.

🪧 Greta Thunberg really has made a difference.

🌳 US launches $1bn fund for tree planting.

👀 Articles to read

🐙 October Energy unveils a new heat pump, some homes will get it for free. Cosy Octopus’ is the first heating eco-system of its kind in the UK, integrating a heat pump, controls, room sensors and a flexible tariff. The typical install price for a 3-bedroom home will be £3,000 after UK government grants and could even be free for a house that does not need adjustments, such as new radiators or hot water tanks. Decarbonising home heating is one of the biggest challenges the UK faces in reaching net zero. In fact, the rate of emissions reductions for home heating must rise sixfold over the next thirty years compared to the past three decades. All I want is to live in a low-carbon rented home in London, is that too much to ask for?

🪧 Greta Thunberg changed the way people think about climate. Fridays for Future, the weekly strike led by Greta led to almost a third of Swiss people changing their habits. The biggest changes in attitudes and behaviours came from transportation, purchasing habits and recycling. Participants leaned towards active travel, local purchasing, consuming more vegetarian meals, and reducing plastic use. Collective action does work.

🚗 Electric vehicle numbers are surging quicker than expected. Electric vehicle (EV) sales have gone from one in every 25 cars sold in 2020 to nearly one in five. That’s mad*. New figures from the Rocky Mountain Institute suggest that EV sales could overtake combustion vehicles as early as 2026. That’s good news for decarbonising transport, but I’m still anti the role of private car ownership for most people. *I’ve been watching Top Boy, sorry.

🍏 Alexa, charge my phone when the electric grid has lower emissions. As part of their iPhone 15 launch event, Apple also announced Grid Forecast, a new app that shows when the emissions from the national grid are at their lowest. The aim is to shift the electricity demand to times with lower emissions, helping people charge their phones, use the dryer or charge EVs when energy is ‘cleaner’.

⚖️ Big emitters are being increasingly regulated to report their emissions. California has taken a leading step with a groundbreaking bill, the first of its kind, mandating major companies to disclose their scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. Currently, this requirement is limited to companies with revenues exceeding $1bn. By 2026, companies must report their operational and electricity emissions, extending to their entire supply chain and customer emissions by 2027. Receiving endorsement from Apple, this legislation represents a significant advancement in climate transparency. As the old saying goes, what gets measured gets managed, and hopefully reduced.

👉🏻 If your revenues are not quite $1bn but you’re wanting to measure, reduce and report your supply chain emissions, I can help. Book some time with me to talk about Zevero, the carbon accounting and decarbonisation platform I run as a day job.

⛴️ Electrification of Portsmouth port to save 20,000 tonnes of carbon. Ships docking in Portsmouth will soon be able to plug directly into the national grid to charge rather than relying on running their engines. One-third of that energy will come from newly installed solar panels too.

🌳 US launches $1bn fund for tree planting. The scheme will fund 385 projects intended to reduce extreme heat and improve access to nature. Importantly, the project will look to support marginalised areas that often have the lowest levels of tree coverage and access to nature.

⚡A glimpse into the ‘petrol’ station of the future. The picture below was posted on LinkedIn from a Lidl supermarket in France and shows a glimpse into future e-stations. This is pretty awesome to see and I imagine it will likely be a mainstay of supermarkets. Why would you not want people who have to park outside for at least 15 minutes, go inside and spend money? It seems like a no-brainer. Oh, and there was a solar roof too.

🥕 Tesco calls for government support in rapid expansion of low carbon fertiliser. Tesco’s CEO, Ken Murphy, is asking for what every business owner wants, confidence to invest in the future. The comments were made as Murphy highlights the potential of green innovation in tackling both carbon and costs. Tesco plans to expand their low-carbon fertiliser trial tenfold over the next year after a trial last year reduced emissions by up to 50%. With the agriculture system accounting for a whopping 1/3 of global carbon emissions, collaboration between business and government is crucial.

🏭 Port Talbot steelworks goes green with a £500m UK grant. Alongside £700m from Tata Steel, the funding will go towards the installation of new electric arc furnaces for steelmaking, shifting the site away from coal use. It’s expected to reduce the UK's entire business and industry carbon emissions by 7%, Wales's overall emissions by 22% and the Port Talbot site's emissions by 85%. 3,000 jobs will be lost which is not great, but all employees will be retrained as part of a transition fund.

💻 Apple & Mother Nature The internet is pretty divided about Apple’s latest ad with Mother Nature. I’ll let you make your mind up, but I thought it was a great way to communicate the work they’re doing. I’m not sure I’m a fan of the idea of carbon-neutral products, we don’t need overconsumption, especially not of smartwatches.

💭 Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

This episode was written while listening to Sammy Virji’s DJ set, a go-to work playlist over the last week. That’s all for this week folks, have a cracking Monday and an even better week.

George, the Grumpy Optimist 💚