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Keir Starmer to unveil ambitious new UK climate goal at Cop29 (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 week ago by frankPodmore@slrpnk.net to c/uk_politics

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[–] flamingos 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The UK will pledge to cut emissions by 81% compared with 1990 levels by 2035, a target in line with the recommendations of the Climate Change Committee, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Good to hear, given the trajectory of other Western countries it's nice to see Starmer not underplaying the action needed.

The goal would be achieved by decarbonising the power sector and through a massive expansion of offshore wind, as well as through investments in carbon capture and storage and nuclear energy.

Carbon capture really is going to be this government's white elephant, isn't it.

[–] frankPodmore@slrpnk.net 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm sceptical, but I think that as long as carbon capture happens alongside shutting down fossil fuels, it's at least worth a try.

[–] GreatAlbatross 5 points 1 week ago

Too many places treat CCAS as plan A, but it does make sense doing it in the background as a plan B.

It does worry me though, that everyone is just going to go "eh, we'll just capture it in 20 years".

[–] Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee 8 points 1 week ago

With or without carbon offsetting though?

"From now on we will be producing our greenhouse gases in Rwanda."

[–] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Nice to hear. Feels like all I've heard recently is politicians (UK and elsewhere) advocating scrapping climate pledges

[–] frankPodmore@slrpnk.net 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

In the UK, the environmental movement has actually won the argument, but I don't think we've fully realised it, yet. Even Conservative voters (if not MPs) want climate action as a high priority.

[–] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yes, that's certainly how it appears, but in order to stay that way, we need constant pressure.

We've seen a fair amount of places go backwards in terms of rhetoric surrounding climate change. The US in particular was more accepting of the reality of climate change 20 years ago than they are now. We need to be vigilant and make sure climate denialism cannot take root here.

Unfortunately, some conservatives and all of Reform seem to be trending in that direction.

[–] frankPodmore@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah, no room for complacency! But that's why we need to do the difficult things quickly (e.g., building all the pylons we need to link up new green energy developments) and also do things that aren't likely to be undone (which is why Labour shouldn't drop the requirement for new homes to have solar panels).

[–] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yup. I'm living in a new build right now and broadly enjoy it, but in some ways I'm shocked it's not more forward-thinking.

No solar panels, gas boiler, radiators on the walls, no heat pump. I keep thinking why the hell was a house built in 2019 not built with this stuff in mind.

Homebuilders need to be told, they won't do it by themselves unless it's cheaper.

[–] frankPodmore@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Exactly. I think Labour would do it, more than happily, were it not for the housing crisis. They understandably want to build a lot, quickly, but they need to be convinced that the crisis won't really be 'solved' without medium- long-term thinking, which includes eco-friendly standards.

[–] wewbull 2 points 1 week ago

Building new houses that are cheap to run, and don't need gas lines put in place should be a positive.

[–] HumanPenguin 0 points 1 week ago

Unfortunately the corperations that fund both parties. Do not want to adapt.

They are the ones funding all the media fud, amd why almost every effort is concentrated on indevidual use/change.