Serious Change Blog

A few months ago I started a new Serious Change project. The aim of the project was to write good responses to online newspaper and blog posts about the UK energy system.

Well, after a few months of online meetings, and posting comments, we got pretty good at responding. We even started to see common arguments for not investing public funds in our energy system. So, the obvious thing to do is to list these common arguments and write our best reponses (google doc). Anyone who would like to help write reponses is most welcome to write on that google doc — and if you would like to discuss any aspect of this project then just email lisa at seriouschange dot org dot uk.

The good thing about this exercise is that the next time we come across one of these common arguments, we can save ourselves some work and just refer to our reponse here — and so can you!

The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, couldn’t have it more backwards:

The European Union’s global leadership on climate change is under threat as Germany heads a rebellion to protect industry from the extra cost of tough environmental targets. (The Telegraph)

She’s wrong for two important reasons.

1. Climate security is an economic target. Years ago the Stern Review showed this. It’s making our climate safe that will protect industry, not continuing to gamble with fossil fuels.

2. The change to a low-carbon economy will build the corporations that rule the world at the end of this century. It’s vital for European prosperity that lots of these are European. Who will own the electric car companies, and the businesses which build mirrors in the deserts?

If you agree with Serious Change, you can write to Chancellor Merkel to tell her. Your letter will help at this vital moment in negotiations.