Community Energy Literature Review

The report “Local government and net zero in England” from the National Audit Office (NAO, 2021) estimated that 91% percent of the 232 local authorities in its sample had adopted at least one commitment to decarbonise in line with government net zero policy. It gave the total number of principal local authorities in England – London borough councils, unitary authorities, metropolitan councils, county councils and district councils – as 333. The report focussed on “local authority work that contributes to the UK’s net zero target rather than on climate work more broadly”, on contributions to emissions reductions within the UK, rather than on climate change adaptation or on emissions from imported goods and “on the relationship between the UK government and local authorities in England for net zero.” The list of key findings indicated that central government had not developed with local authorities “any overall expectations about their roles in achieving the national net zero target” and...

A June editorial in Nature (2023) commented that “the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals are heading for the rocks” although the “failure to meet even one of the SDGs is not for want of trying.” It referred to the 2023 Global Sustainable Development Report, published a few days previously, in which “an independent group of science advisers to the UN proposed a way forwards” (GSDR, 2023). The Nature editorial promised a series of articles looking forward to the September session of the UN General Assembly in New York, at which the Sustainable Development Goals would be debated. The UN described this 78th session as marking “a crucial milestone in the journey towards achieving the 2030 Agenda and the urgent need to put the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) back on track.” (UN, 2023) The General Debate took place between 19 th and 26 th September. On September 20 th , The Guardian carried an article about PM Sunak’s plans to delay some climate targets, in order “to save money fo...

The interactions between climate fiction and environmental activism are the subject of a paper by Alacovska and Holt (2023). They describe environmental activism as “grassroots, decentralised social movements” which attempt to address issues of “inequality and systemic injustice arising from anthropogenic climate change, environmental degradation and ecological collapse” by means of non-hierarchical collective organising. The main object of their paper is to propose methods for future research, but here we will only draw on their introduction to the subject and its background. They believe that the popular genre of climate fiction influences climate activism , with the potential to stimulate the imagination and to energise the “quest for the attainment of better climate alternatives”. This stands in contrast with much writing on climate change, which is concerned with data and “mathematical prediction models for forecasting and comprehending the gravity of global environmental challeng...

In July 2022 the BBC’s business editor outlined plans for the biggest upgrade of the UK’s electricity network in sixty years (Jack, 2022). The expansion would allow an increase in the number of onshore and offshore wind turbines from 11,000, producing “nearly a quarter of the UK's electricity”, to a 2030 total which the National Grid electricity system operator believed would “deliver 50GW of offshore wind power … a third of the UK's electricity demand”. The £54bn project was not without opposition, for example to the building of a 110-mile line of 50m high pylons across East Anglian countryside. In May 2023 National Grid issued a press release setting out its case for the reforms needed to drive the energy transition, the “priority actions to ensure the networks can play their full role in achieving net zero” ( National Grid, 2023a). The five priorities are reform of the planning system, centred around a strategic clean energy vision; ensuring that the regulatory and governa...

A straightforward view of the importance of narrative in relation to climate change is made by Rosenberg, 2023, who refers to the dangers posed by human-induced climate change, and states that “Communicating this issue beyond the scientific community is a complex and difficult endeavor. Climate change is unfolding on a time scale that is difficult for humans to grasp and comprehend.” She claims that “Storytelling has the power to invoke emotions, increase knowledge, and inspire action” and outlines a project that will “create a bridge that connects people to the world of climate change science and those who dedicate themselves to its pursuit.” In his additional chapters to ‘Orality and Literacy’ (Ong, 2013) John Hartley touches on general aspects of the power of narrative and its medium. He touches on the abstraction of writing and print from the immediacy of speech, the formation of the modern mind “in the crucible of language”, the determination of mind by medium, the soft power of...

    On 13 June the successful launch of the HOTSAT-1 satellite was reported by the SatVu company (SatVu, 2023a). It was described as the first of eight planned satellites which because of their “unique thermal imaging capabilities” would provide a “valuable and unique insight into economic activity and energy efficiency for a range of industries aligning with global Net Zero goals.” During February of the previous year Alex Conacher (2022) wrote that “British satellite company Satellite Vu has signed a deal with SpaceX to launch its satellites into low earth orbit in early 2023. The company’s satellites collect thermal data of the built and natural environment and are capable of measuring the heat signature of a building several times per day.” Prior to the launch SatVu explained that the “pioneering space technology” had already been deployed in a UK test flight which showed its potential to map heat loss from houses, identifying “buildings most in need of retrofittin...