🌱 The Grumpy Optimists #109

Happy Monday. 👋

Welcome back to another episode of The Grumpy Optimists, your weekly recap of last week’s positive climate news. There are plenty of great things to highlight this week, from low-cost electric car schemes to England banning single-use plastics. Without further ado, let’s dig into it. 👇

👀 Articles to read

🚘 France unveils €100/month electric car scheme. To accelerate France’s 2030 climate targets, Macron is pushing ahead with a state-sponsored system to provide low-income households with the option to lease electric vehicles for the relatively low fee of €100 per month.

🔌 National Grid and Octopus Energy use electric cars to help balance the UK grid. Through Octopus Energy’s ‘intelligent octopus’ tariff, car batteries will be used to balance the grid while they’re charging. This means that energy will be stored in car batteries but may be fed back into the grid when required, reducing the reliance on gas power stations for backup energy. Not only does this provide more flexibility to the grid, but there are no negative impacts on consumers and often, they’ll save money on their tariff.

🇮🇪 Ireland denies LNG port for climate reasons. Ireland becomes one of, if not the first country to deny an LNG facility for climate reasons and not local opposition. It’s a bold step from a country that is looking to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels and imports. I know some countries that may learn a few lessons.

🔋 The UK’s electricity grid is changing rapidly, and for good. The UK’s biggest energy source, gas, is now generating less than during COVID-19 and when the country was effectively shut down. We’re making progress!

🔗 UK-Morocco power link gets government approval boost. Xlinks, a company building an undersea cable connecting the UK to wind and solar farms in the Moroccan Sahara Desert got a major boost as the UK government granted the project ‘nationally significant’. Not only is the project a classic Geography case study, it will also provide low-carbon energy for 7 million homes in the UK. The project is not expected to come online for several years but it’s still pretty cool.

🇫🇷 France is giving the Seine the golden treatment for the Olympics. History will be made at the Olympics next year as the Opening Ceremony will be the first to take place on a river, not in a stadium. The river Seine is also aiming to host swimming events with Paris spending billions on improving the river’s water quality. While there are doubts about the feasibility of making this happen, with tests already being cancelled due to water quality, the hope is that the games present a fantastic opportunity for Parisians to swim in the Seine for the first time since 1923.

🍽️ England bans more single-use plastics. Polystyrene cups, balloon sticks, plates, bowls and plastic cutlery are the latest single-use plastics to be banned in England. Sounds like a great win, but these same items were banned two years ago in the EU.

The problem with single-use is that we can’t recycle our way out of it. I shared the video from the Environmental Paper Network earlier this week and I think it’s a great demonstration of the amount of waste and hidden emissions required to create single-use items. I understand that there is energy that goes into creating a plate as well as the washing process etc but this will be minimal in comparison to single-use items. Banning single-use plastics is great, I’m all for it, but we need to remove single-use culture from our society.

💰 Rich nations pledge €8.8bn to UN global climate fund. The money will help fund the transition to clean energy and reduce emissions in developing countries.

⚽ Rhino Cup Football wins BBC sustainability award. It turns out some of the biggest drivers that lead to Rhino poaching are boredom, idleness and poverty. The Rhino Cup Champions League aims to provide a constructive way to encourage conservation and prevent Rhino poaching. Football is an incredible game and to see it being used like this is too good not to share.

🤝 Climate X Memes

It’s funny because this is not a meme but it really should be. Rishi Sunak, the man who just cancelled a train line connecting Manchester and London, while in Manchester, talks about how we can boost our transport while flying on a private jet?! Like bruh, are you and your PR team really that stupid?

This week's episode was written in a cafe while it was 25-degree sunshine in London, in October. We should probably be slightly worried about that. It was also written to a combination of background music from Brick Lane and Drake’s new album. Thanks to all of you who liked and shared last week, this week, a Snickers is on the cards for those of you who share.

George, the Grumpy Optimist 💚