Friday, November 03, 2017

What's it all about?

Find the podcast here.

Manda Scott interviews Anthony Day

ANTHONY DAY: Hello, it's Friday, the 3rd of November. This is Anthony Day, this is the Sustainable Futures Report, but this one is different.
MANDA SCOTT: Indeed it is, thank you Anthony. This is in fact Manda Scott standing in this week for Anthony while he's away hosting a conference. We thought that as the podcast nears its  200th edition; it would be interesting to hear from Anthony himself; who he is, what he does when he's not presenting report, how he got here and where he's going. Don't forget, if you like the report you can support it on patreon.com/sfr . And then in the meantime, I interviewed Anthony last week, and my first question was; Anthony, who are you and what do you do when you're not presenting the sustainable futures report?
ANTHONY: Well, that's two big questions; I'll tell you what I do when I'm not actually presenting the sustainable futures report. Of course, writing it, researching it and talking to audiences whenever I get the chance about it. The other things I get involved in is our local community energy organization. I keep my bees, we have an allotment, so I won't say we're self-sufficient, but we do like to grow a few things like that. I’m involved in Toastmasters which is the ''International Speaking and Listening and Leadership Organization'' and that's taking a lot of time. I'm actually a director of their autumn conference which takes place in two weeks, which is taking a lot of my time just at the moment, and I we have grandchildren. I shouldn't really say that some of them are in Australia, because if we go down there as we will in December, there's a carbon footprint, that's the sort of things that I do. But if you say who am I, what have I done?
MANDA SCOTT: Perhaps it is better to let's go back to how did you get from there to here? What led you to being the kind of person who would set up the Sustainable Futures Report ?
ANTHONY: I've always being interested in sustainability and the environment for a very long time. In fact, I'm going to show you this is the Ecologist - Blueprint for Survival - which I bought it when it came out in February 1972. The interesting thing is, it says to start with an examination of the relevant information available has impressed upon us the extreme gravity of the global situation today. For if current trends are allowed to persist, the breakdown in society and irreversible destruction of a life support system on this planet, possibly by the end of the century, certainly within the lifetime of our children are inevitable, that's 45 years ago isn't it?
MANDA SCOTT: I just did the calculation, that’s exactly 45 years ago, and they are right. We just have to look around the world and find that they were right. So, what were you doing then 45 years ago that led you to be reading the Ecologist?
ANTHONY: Well, what I was actually doing is, I was working at a water meter factory as an organization and methods officer in Yorkshire. But I was interested in environmental issues, in low-impact living and that sort of thing, I don't know where it all came from. But it's an interest which I've had at the back of my mind for a very long time. And what actually crystalized it was much more recent when I read a book called ''The End of Oil’’; I'm talking about peak oil. And I realized that there was going to be a problem there if we were totally based on ''fossil fuels'', and we were using it faster than we were replacing it with new discoveries, it was going to be really serious. Of course the world has changed an awful lot since then, well fracking has revolutionized oil and gas in the States, and there have been techniques which mean that we can recover far more fossil fuels. But we’ve also realized the dangers of using fossil fuels and we’ve developed renewables.
I went back actually to 2007, when I started doing the sustainable futures report. At least I started doing  the podcast - we didn’t call it that then, and it was quite interesting to listen to myself talking about what went on in 2007. The Carbon Trust had just launched the carbon footprint label, and I don't know whether you remember that. But Walkers Crisps got in on that, and on every packet there was a little carbon footprint label which said; this 37g of crisps have caused emissions of 75g of CO2. And the idea was that we put that on every product and people would realize what the impact was. Carbon Trust still exists, but I don’t think it does the carbon label anymore partly because the methodology is extremely difficult to create on a consistent basis. I mean things like, if an organization is totally vertically integrated, if it owned the farms which grew the potatoes, it owned the lorries which transported them as well as the factories and all that sort of thing, then it could identify the carbon at every single stage. But if it didn't, then it got messy and difficult and I think that's why it never took off.
But at the same time, I had forgotten all about this, Ed Miliband was saying that everyone in the country should have a carbon allowance, and the idea was that everybody was given carbon credits. So if you want to fly off to Australia and you haven't got enough carbon credit, then you buy them on the market. And this was a way of redistributing income, because people who wanted to go on exotic holidays would buy the credits from people who hadn't got the means or the interest in going on these exotic holidays and they would make money out of these carbon credits which the government had given them for nothing. That's an idea which...
MANDA SCOTT: It might be worth reviving, and one of the reasons I think some of us thought that Ed Miliband  would make a good leader of the Labour party was, he was an exceptionally good environment minister.
ANTHONY: He was, yes.
MANDA SCOTT: Honest innovative ideas. The hierarchy of the party didn’t let him do anything at the time, and obviously when he became the leader that all evaporated, which is incredibly sad. Do you think either of those, the carbon footprints label or carbon credits might be something that would be worth reviving now, or is it too late?
ANTHONY: I think there are too many difficulties for the carbon label for it to actually be introduced, but I think carbon credits is quite a good idea. I've talked on the podcast a few times about the universal basic income and there is quite a lot of chat about the universal basic incom.e That might be a way, or it might be something which is done in parallel with the basic income. It's a way of giving benefits to the less fortunate people in society.
MANDA SCOTT: Yes, and it's a way to create a currency ''a parallel currency'' in which the banks one hopes they can change the trading rules, so it wasn't something that could be shuffled into Panama accounts. So that it became something that effectively was a national, but a global counter-currency and then if you were to link it to ways of producing energy that were such a renewable system I suppose, it would give everybody a sort of panel that they could put on the roof and that way they can generate their own carbon credits by creating their own energy. Then you begin to have ways of currency and trading that are not linked to things that the banks created out of nothing, then that would be quite exciting.
ANTHONY: Yes, well maybe that's something that could be done, but there's no political appetite at the moment, everybody is unfortunately totally focused on ‘’Brexit’’. I don't want to talk about that because we could talk about that all afternoon.
MANDA SCOTT: We could, and we would lose a lot of time and bounce our heads off the walls.
ANTHONY: But all I would say is, it is taking an enormous amount of government time, of civil service time and money, both of which could be used better elsewhere.
MANDA: Yes, and every sense a catastrophe anyway. So how did you come to set up the sustainable futures report? What was your aim and how did you get to do it?
ANTHONY: Well, I think the aim was to raise my profile, also to develop credibility. And I think it has done that, in that I can now turn around and say I've done nearly 200 episodes. I was wrong when I said on the latest episode that it was number 224, I thought I'd done more podcasts than blogs, but in fact it's the other way around. It's 196 so far, but it does seem to be raising the profile because I've had people approach me and say that they want to appear on the sustainable futures report. I've got an interview with the international copper association which will come out on the first of December. I've got an organization which wants to talk about the sort of challenges from sustainability in the  humanist context. I've also got an organization which is in ''nuclear fusion'' and they want to talk about things.
MANDA SCOTT: Magical technology that is always 40 years away, that would be really interesting.
ANTHONY: Yes, but I've had somebody else who contacted me about that a while ago and I’m very remiss that I haven't actually followed up on him. Because I went back with that response yes, it’s the one that's always been 40 years out. He says no, hang on, things have changed. So I need to read up on what he sent me, because that could be interesting. The whole nuclear field is very interesting, because while Hinkley C, which is going to be the most expensive building site in the world and isn’t guaranteed to work…
MANDA SCOTT: And it will cost us electricity and twice the current rate.
ANTHONY: Yes, but the other thing of course is, ''the neighborhood nuclear reactor''. Now the average person is probably not going to like that idea. But we in the UK apparently are leaders in producing compact ''nuclear reactors'', the type that run submarines. And people live in nuclear submarines right next to nuclear power plants, and they don't suffer any ill effects. So I feel if we put something like that in a few shipping containers at the end of the street, people wouldn't know what it was at all or why it was there, but that might be a way forward.
MANDA SCOTT: It would have to be very much protected in terms of being a terrorist target, wouldn't it? Can you imagine a shipping container at the end of your street and what happens when somebody decides to run a car bomb into it?
ANTHONY: Oh yes, you'd have to take precautions. But of course it would be so much smaller than a traditional nuclear power station, but obviously one has to think it through.
MANDA SCOTT: Nuclear fusion I think, I feel really its closer, it's a lot safer.
ANTHONY: Yes, it is. And then the ''thorium reactor'', that also is safer I believe, insofar as apparently the waste from a thorium reactor loses most of its potency in 100 years, whereas other reactors it’s thousands of years.
MANDA SCOTT: That will be interesting, because there was a report in the Guardian this week, so we're in the middle of October just now saying that; effectively the civilian nuclear program was being used to supplement the military nuclear program. And that if it wasn't the case, that the military UK nuclear program was surviving on the back of the civilian one, then the civilian one probably wouldn't exist.
ANTHONY: Yes.
MANDA SCOTT: So, if we move to thorium or a nuclear fusion, then they don't have any impact on the military and it will be really interesting to see how much the government suddenly loves nuclear if it didn't have the department of defense behind it saying come on guys we need this too.
ANTHONY: Yes, but it’s not as though we're using up our armoury, is it? Every nuclear bomb that has been made since the war has not been used. And I would have thought if they need to restructure and start working in a different way, they could use the existing stock. But then, I’m no expert on that sort of thing.
MANDA SCOTT: Yes, that's interesting isn't it? We need to look into what we're actually using it for.
ANTHONY: Yes.
MANDA SCOTT: So, when you set up the sustainable feature report, it was to raise your profile?
ANTHONY: Yes.
MANDA SCOTT: And obviously your reach is extending across the world and it's growing every day. What are your aims now? Your profile is raised, and it is increasingly rising, where are you heading with it?
ANTHONY: I'm looking for the opportunity to actually go and stand on the stage in front of an audience and present the ideas. To be honest I haven't done any sustainability related presentations for quite a long time. And the thing is, every time I do a presentation, it's different, because the world is changing. I have a lot of colleagues and friends in the professional speaking association, and many of them have a theme and they're producing the same presentation again and again, because their truth is constant and it's what they do. They are the person who talks about ''better presentations skill'', or they are the person who talks about ''improving your sales'' and they are very good at it. Now, I talk about sustainability, and a lot of people don't want to hear about it, because it is bad news, obviously it is bad. And it changes all the time, so the big thing with commercial presentation is the audience says at the end of your presentation; when I walk away, where is the benefit?
Now, a sales person can say, “Your sales force will go out, reinvigorated and you will see those numbers rise.” I can't say that, all I can say is, if you do things this way, you might not actually suffer damage or loss of business. I can't offer you anything that's actually going to be better, but I can help you stop things getting worse. And of course it is completely difficult and impossible to measure how you've actually prevented somebody from making things worse. It's a bit like, somebody who was saying something about the man who invented the locks on aircraft doors  -didn’t get any recognition for it. But who can say what terrorist attacks he’s prevented.
MANDA SCOTT: So, do you think having got a podcast which has clearly got a wide reach, do you still want to stand on the stage and speak to people? Is that likely to have more impact or is it simply something that pays better?
ANTHONY: Well, hopefully it pays better, yes. It's also a partly that I enjoy interacting with a live audience. Anyway, in the meantime, I'm going to follow your lead and go back to school. I've applied to Leeds Beckett University to do a PhD.
MANDA SCOTT: Fantastic, in what?
ANTHONY: In sustainability, at the institute of sustainability. Now apparently the first 6 months or so is spent refining the actual scope of the thesis, and what I want to examine is the method of promoting the sustainability message; things like why denialists are getting all the attention and why in fact even though this is one of the most serious issues in history, even though the ways that we change things will actually keep people's standard of living where it was and possibly better, making it more comfortable, people are totally resistant against change. And of course there are the vested interests, because if you're an oil company, you want to sell oil. So, that's what I want to study over the next few years.
MANDA SCOTT: Interesting, and is that full-time or part-time?
ANTHONY: It will be part-time.
MANDA SCOTT: And how many years would it take?
ANTHONY: It would probably take five years.
MANDA SCOTT: Gosh.
ANTHONY: I really haven't got my head around why it should take such a long time. So, once we get a bit further down the application process, and I hope to actually meet more of the academic staff and know exactly why it does take so long. I think it does involve quite a lot of interviews and surveys and censuses and things like that which will take quite some time to publish and then gather the data from and analyze. But it’s early days, but I wanted to do that partly to focus what I do on sustainability. You look at the sustainability futures report, every episode has got at least half a dozen very different topics in it. And am I an expert, well in what? Because it's so broad, maybe this will narrow my field a bit, but we'll see. It will also give me two things which I'm looking forward to; It will give me access to online academic journals. And quite often I chase stories down I come up against a paywall. Now I can't afford to subscribe to all these things obviously. So as a student I should be able to get into a lot of these things like Nature for example. Yes, that's one of the things.
And the other thing is a bit of; I'd like to get some sort of academic credit for what I believe is a large body of knowledge which I have built up at quite a long time.
MANDA SCOTT: Yes, so in this as you're building towards the PhD, who are your role models in the world of communicating sustainability?
ANTHONY: I think we've got to say Al Gore. He has worked very hard, I wasn't impressed with his latest film, it was too much of a movie about Al Gore, rather than about the sustainability agenda. But he’s stuck with it and I understand that he’s even gone vegan, which I think is quite a challenge. Incidentally, I'm going to, when I get time; get hold of the vegan society, because if you look at their website, it says sustainability all over it. So, I'm going to get hold of them and say look, explain to me why I should be vegan. I'm not saying I would be, but you know…

It's very difficult to think of a role model, but one person who impresses me is ''Elon Musk’’; do you know who I mean?
MANDA SCOTT: Yes, absolutely, Tesla Tiles, Tesla cars, yes.
ANTHONY: Yes, well, Elon Musk actually started, I believe setting up PayPal and he made his money there. He set up Tesla yes, which markets electric cars everywhere in the world as far as I can see. And in the process of launching his mass-market car, he also is chief executive, and in fact this is more than a name. He's chief executive of ''Tesla cars’’; he's chief executive of ''Space X’’, which is the company which has successfully launched missions to the space station and  has supplied the space station. They have developed a rocket which will actually come back and land. And the sort of technology that he is stimulating, and I think it's amazing and he's only 46. And if you read the account of how his working week goes, it's quite incredible, so that's somebody to watch I think. And the lot of things he's doing is very green, but I'm not altogether sure that I agree with ''space tourism''.
MANDA SCOTT: Or with the idea of an exodus to Mars, so those who can afford it or those who are chosen will be able to get to Mars when this planet finally is uninhabitable and that’s the aim of Space X.
ANTHONY: But that's interesting, yes he's talking about a colony of a million people on Mars and Steven Hawking is also saying that the future of human race is on Mars. I think people have got to realize that's the future of the human race as a species. He’s not suggesting all seven and half billion of us will actually go there.
MANDA SCOTT: No, and what's amazing, I think is that they’re look at Mars and thinking “that could be inhabitable.” And not looking at planet earth and thinking; “well it's pretty inhabitable now and we can stop it becoming uninhabitable without needing to send everybody off to Mars which currently is significantly less inhabitable”.
ANTHONY: Yes.
MANDA SCOTT: So where we were going was, we're not going to talk about Brexit, we're not going to talk about Trump. But the world is in the state that it’s in. Denialists have some very strong arguments to which a lot of people are listening, and our culture is not giving everything that it has to reversing the impacts of climate change and to mitigating further carbon losses. How do you see the world progressing in the next 5-10 years, first as it is? And second, what if we were to get it right, what if everybody was to listen to the sustainable futures report and believe it?
ANTHONY: Well are people going to make radical changes in the next 5-10 years? I think not, you know. Because looking back at 2007, an awful lot of books had been published at that time about climate change and environmental issues. There was a ''May Day'' conference which was led by the ''Prince of Wales'' and that was a conference across the whole of UK, I mentioned that in a podcast recently. It was networked with video links to 20 different places across the United Kingdom. And the following year they did it again, and the year after that they did it again, and each year got smaller and smaller and they don't do it anymore.
We've seen George Osborne change the rules on car tax, because we did have a whole range of different car tax bands dependent on the amount of CO2s which the cars emitted. Every car is exactly the same unless it is pure electric. So, people have just sort of thought, well, they didn't think about it anymore. You're going to buy a new car, you concerned out emissions? No, not at all. But why not? There's a long way to go, and I think we can only make people change if we can make them see that it's in their interest and that is the conundrum which, well I think everybody would like to know the answer to how you can influence people to accept change.
MANDA SCOTT: So, final question then. Do you have a message for those of us who listen to the sustainable futures report week-in, week-out? What would you have us do besides listening? If you had a message just for listeners, what would it be?
ANTHONY: Tell me what you like, tell me what you'd like to hear more of, let me focus it on what you think is important. Because I'm sitting in a vacuum, I'm looking at the press, I'm listening to the media, I pick up things which I think are interesting. But, it's got to be something which helps you develop your understanding and I'm here to do that for the people who listen to it.
The other thing I think I would say is a practical thing you can do, ''check your carbon footprint''. I'm going to check my own, we had Professor Coplan the other day, talking about how he has got a 4 ton carbon footprint as against 22 tons, which the average American does. I bumped into somebody the other day, he said he won a prize a few years ago for having the lowest carbon footprint in the UK, and he reckoned it was 1 ton. So, I think what we'll look at is not only what our carbon footprints are, but we'll look at the different measures with different algorithms on the internet to see whether one measure gives us a different result from another. And maybe we should challenge each other to review our carbon footprints every year and to see how we're doing.
MANDA SCOTT: Fantastic, so Anthony Day; creator of the sustainable futures report. Thank you very much for coming along to answer questions, and I hope our listeners have enjoyed it. And if you have guys, then you need to write in and let Anthony know whether you like this or not, whether you'd like more things like this and particularly do tell him what it is that you'd like to hear, so that we can focus in more closely on that. Anthony, thank you.

ANTHONY: Thank you, it's been a pleasure.
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Friday, October 27, 2017

Time for T in London?

Hello this is Anthony Day and this is the Sustainable Futures Report for Friday 27th November.
In London it could be time for T, or you could be better off on a bike. Yvonne Teo tells us about her sustainable adventures on a bike. Have you checked your carbon footprint? Best foot forward!
Guilty as Charged?
Transport for London has announced a supplement to the congestion charge - the T-Charge. They say, “Older vehicles driving in central London now need to meet minimum Euro emission standards or pay an extra daily charge. This is in addition to the Congestion Charge. The T-Charge (officially known as the Emissions Surcharge) operates in the Congestion Charge zone and is part of our commitment to help clean up London's dangerously polluted air.”
It’s official then, London’s air is dangerously polluted. The T-charge is £10 per day in addition to the £11.50 congestion charge. My car is 12 years old (last Wednesday) so I checked whether I was liable to pay. No, I have to pay the congestion charge, but not the T-charge. So that’s me feeling smug because I drive a Toyota Prius Hybrid. But then I never drive it in London.
Ultra Low Emission Vehicles and electric vehicles get a 100% discount from both charges. Everyone else driving a private car has to pay.
Tread Gently!
I mentioned my carbon footprint the other day and told you it was 11.7 tonnes, not far off the average for industrialised nations but way ahead of the 7.1tonnes for the UK. How do I measure up?
The biggest element was flights. I took into account a trip to Australia, which adds up to 2.7 tonnes and brings me down to 9 tonnes straight away. I know - but we have family out there, and I do try to cut down elsewhere. At least I thought I did. The next highest item is 10,000 miles in the car at 2 tonnes - and this was calculated on my specific low-emissions hybrid. It surprised me and reinforces the point of Karl Coplan, Kim Nicholas and Seth Wynes that getting rid of the car is one of the most effective ways of reducing your carbon footprint. That would bring me back to 7 tonnes. Next highest is 1.8 tonnes calculated on how much money we spend on food. Not sure what the actual algorithm behind that is. Then comes energy used in the home at 1.2 tonnes. I based this on a guess, so there could be an improvement here. We have solar panels, so the amount of electricity from the grid that we use should be lower than average. Shouldn’t we get a credit for the amount we feed back?
Next is 0.9 of a tonne calculated on the amount of money I spend on the car, excluding fuel costs. I put in the cost of maintenance and repairs, but should I also put in the cost of buying the car - for example purchase price less current value divided by age of the car? I paid for the car in full on purchase, but many people just take out a personal lease, so the formula behind this calculation must be more accurate in some cases than in others. 
The other 3 tonnes are calculated on the basis of what I spend on clothes, papers and books, TV, phone and computers, hotels, restaurants and pubs, insurance and recreation, culture and sport. I’d really like to know more about what’s behind all that. 
What’s your carbon footprint?


On your Bike!
The cleanest journey is of course by bike. If you don’t count the carbon footprint of manufacturing the bike.
Earlier this year I met Yvonne Teo who explained to me how she was promoting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, how she was supporting the Marawi people in the Philippines and how she's been talking to young people and people in schools about their futures. She’s also been talking to people in the House of Commons, riding a bike from London to Edinburgh and she was scheduled to represent the UK at a recent conference in Poland. 
Here’s what she told me:

When you talk about BIKE, it makes me to think about something that is with two wheels which is called bicycle. And then the second is; ''Be Inspired, Keep Empowering'', which is something that I want to do in my life, so I want to inspire more people and I want to be empowering more young people especially to know about sustainable development goals and also to find their passion in their lives. So basically I'd like to introduce about project BIKE, which is; it is a project to raise funds for the Marawi community from the Philippines that erupted by the military and the local terrorist group on the 23rd of May. And then, this plan is to have the leader, which is me, to cycle from London to Edinburgh and also deliver 50 speeches in a year and also to help 20 children with education specifically and also to raise fund for the Marawi as well. 
Hi, my name is Yvonne; 
so I'm 22 and Malaysian. I have mild ADHD which I'm very proud of and I’m the regional director for ASEAN Youths Leaders Association. So, as you can see from this picture, the young kids are very, very happy and of course this place is rich in beautiful landscapes and nature. Wow, they have a very beautiful city that's called Philippines, which is where my heart belongs to. Philippines is a place where I'd say I start from zero to become a hero. Why am I saying zero, because I was a student with nothing and I wasn’t sure or I was really unsure about my life or what I want to be and also about discovering so called career. I’m not sure whether it's a career, but I’d say that's a passion in my life.
So, I was really lucky, I got into Asian Development Bank, which is one of the very big organisation delivering a project with my team called project Neverland and we're pretty lucky to get into the second place and then also this is some of the photos that I was interviewing one of the cleaner for some of the projects. And of course I was really lucky to be in some villages and I met the lady which is the one who carried me and she's really, really lovely. I was actually trying to cross the river by myself, but she insist and she’s actually the secretary from the village as well. And of course, because of Philippines that gave me just one simple chance and of course that conference was actually sponsored by my vice-Chancellor which is Dr. Paul Chan. He actually sponsored me to be in the Philippines, to be in that conference and I'm very grateful till now that changed my life completely. And of course I was granted by UNICEF for being the most initiative delegate in one of the conference which is called ''ASEAN Youth Initiative Conference'', if I'm not mistaken this last year and of course I was also really lucky to meet people like Dr. Amin and Tony Fernandez; the CEO of A-Asia and I also got the chance to be in the House of Commons to meet different kind of people, like-minded people to talk about sustainable development goal and also women empowerment.
Japan
And this is one of the recent photos when I was in Japan last May and as a representative of AILA partnership with Plan International and this lady is from Plan International UK, she's the CEO of it and also from one of the CEOs from Plan International Japan. And I also facilitated several sessions in the United Nations Bangkok with one of the conferences named Asia Pacific Youth Exchange. I've also being to India for some conferences as I was also on the news in China and I was also on like some other news and also in Indonesia and other places as well. So this is the map that showed that I’ve been to several countries in a year time to spread and to talk about sustainable development goal, because that's really an important thing that we and everyone should know especially young people.
The Maravi People
 On 23rd of May which was the day after Manchester attack which was really a sad tragedy, that day and I saw this and this. All of these were in the Philippines and it happens in the beautiful land that I care about. At that moment, I have two friends of mine who live in that community called Maravi, he told me that the situation in Maravi is really, really bad, but nobody is concerned about it. Maybe there are some, but I'd say it's not much as compared with the Manchester attack. So, what breaks my heart was, everyone is concerned about just one, but they also forgot about some other places like Iran also having the same situation on the same day. So, I wanted to tell people that we should also spread love, not only because you are same nation or you're just from one particular country. But we should also spread love throughout the world, so that’s why being a Malaysian who lives in the UK, but I still care about what’s happening around me which is the Philippines and of course in Iran too. So I had a thought; honestly I must exert myself in order to return as much as I've received. I honour and I know how much I received from the Philippines and I know that I have to return some day, so I told myself, why not now?
Cycling for Beginners
Being a Malaysian in the UK, in the Philippines, I told myself; let's do something and I was thinking what things that I should do; why not carry out a charity campaign. There goes the bike and I was like, yeah, cycle around the UK. It may sound fun because for me, a person who has no idea about cycling and I have zero, not really zero, but maybe 10% or 20% of experience with cycling because I don’t like to cycle as I had a bad memory as when I was cycling, I fell off from a bike and all. So, I told myself, okay let’s challenge this maybe in the daytime, I expect myself to just pedal 18-20 miles because I have no idea on adjusting the gears and I can't really balance on well and all. With 60 litres gear at the back of my bicycle, that was really heavy, but actually on the first day I did 50 miles, which I never expect that. And normally, I can do 38 miles, but minimum average is like 28 miles, so the longest could be 52 miles. 
The SDGs
Besides cycling, I've being SDG activists, I also concern about sustainable development goals and I slowly realise that SDG are not well known across the UK. And also being an SDG activists, I shouldn't only care about what’s happening or what I've carried before and also that I have to utilise what I have at the moment which is in the UK and doing something similar that I did, which is talk to the young kids or talk to anyone who cares about our future, everyone cares. So, I decided to talk about SDG; well it was really tough because going to the schools and to give speeches is not an easy procedure. So, how many calls do I make in a day? 20, 30, 50 and I got more than hundred rejections. It was really depressing at the beginning, but slowly when the teachers started to revert back to me saying that it would be really nice and I started to build up and especially when I successfully delivered a speech from the face of the kids and I realised that I’m doing something right. So, how about the funding? All the funding that we have collected is not to me, they are doing all on my basis. So, all the donations are through online and all these funding and the website was actually carried out by the US government of Alumni Association from Denver and AFS, which is ''international cultural programs also from the States. ASEAN Youth Leaders Association, part of my organization from Denver, YSALI; ''Young Service Asia Leadership Initiative'' and also Rotary club in the Denver.
So what's the outcome of this? 
So cycling, I cycled in different kind of routes, it would be motorway; A1 crazy main road and also like farm, field and there was one time I got into the field from Ripon all the way to Durham and it was 60% slope and I had no idea what’s happening down there. So, at the moment, after I pass through this way, what came into my mind was; do it or die. I have no choice, I have to do it or else I'll just die in the middle of the field, nobody except horses. When I got down, there were two horses waiting for me, chasing me. It was really fun trying to pedal and also lots of sheep, it's alright. I also cycled under the rain, I conquered one of the fear with myself that I hate cycling under the rain because I fell off when it was raining, so that’s why I stopped cycling. And of course I also passed through like parks and I met different kinds of people, like this is from Bedlington and it was really lovely to meet them too.
Back to School
Delivering speeches in the school, it was really, really, really the happiest moments in my life for all the speeches because you cannot imagine how smart, how lovely these young people are and they really care about the future, so I know I have a big mission that I have to deliver this message to them - and of course to spread love.
New Friends
This is James and Aileen, on the first day when I met them in Cambridge I was very depressing, because from cycling London to Cambridge and I stopped in Saffron Walden and I was really expleted and that’s why I sat in my tent in Saffron Walden which is 10 miles away from Cambridge. And it was 10 PM and I sighted these cars that passed my tent and they stopped. They did nothing and I was waiting in my tent and it was actually not really a spot that everyone can spot me, it was just like under a tree. So I was there, I just stayed in my tent and I was like oh shit, what's happening. Because it’s like the first camping experience that I had in my life, I never camped in my life, so that was my first, first, first time and my parents were actually really mad about it because they didn't expect their kid to be 10 PM out and camping in some other places. And then there was somebody at the time of 12 AM threw the water bottle and also the traffic cone to my tent when I was asleep and I was totally freaked out. It was really sad and it really shocked me and luckily my friends gave me a ring that time, so my phone rang and that's like the voice. So they thought it was the alarm and they just ran off and I heard them laughing and then I was really sad, but I tried to peek what was happening and I realised that it's all clear. I quickly packed everything and it was dark and dim and I just pedalled all the way to Cambridge. That was my first day, it was horrible. And I met them, they were really, really nice and they looked after me.
This is also the lady that I met on the first day as she gave me a place to clean myself up and of course I also met different kind of people in the camp site. This is the boss of the camp site in Fiskerton, his name is called Lass and he’s really nice that he also tried to look after me; he talks to my so-called English parents. I also met English parents throughout the journey and of course I also met really nice people because I was cycling all the way through the muddy areas, the muddy roads and it was like full of muds and it was really completely dirty. I met him because my tyre punctured, I met him in Cramlington and he and his family cleaned my bike up which is really, really nice.
The Right Road
Basically it's more like what’s happening throughout this bike ride and a deep reflection of this campaign is I know I’m doing something right and I’m not wasting my time first of all.
And second, the world is still beautiful because I remember at the very beginning when I was carrying out this charity bike ride, everybody told me that Yvonne, stop this, don't do it, the world is really dangerous and then slowly I still keep the faith in myself and I told them I'm still going to do this, I'm going to carry out this one and I continued cycling and cycling and I’m not listening to anybody, but listening to the voice of myself. So, the lesson that I learned is listen to your voice, just continue doing it and then I made it.
And then the third thing is, invest in young children. The young kids, the young teenagers they are the future because they are the ones who decides what’s going to happen in the future and I really believe that that’s the most important thing at all. And of course, we have to focus on sustainable development goal, that’s the most, most important thing. Climate change is real, education is strongly needed, every single one, if that’s a possibility. The health conscious: everything has to be constant. Thank you very much.

That was Yvonne Teo. Happy Cycling, Yvonne! - and thank you for talking to us.
You can find out more about Project Bike at https://tyvyvonne.wordpress.com/project-bike/ and Yvonne is on Facebook.

I'm Anthony Day and this has been a special edition of the Sustainable Futures Report. There is a new episode of the report every week on Friday, so if you're reading the blog go to susbiz.biz to find the podcast or if you're listening to the podcast go to sustainablefutures.report to find the text. There is an archive of well over 200 editions so please feel free to browse.
For the moment this is Anthony Day and I'll have a fresh new episode for you next Friday.
Thanks again to Yvonne and bye for now.


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Friday, October 20, 2017

A Clean Growth Strategy


Keep it clean and keep growing


It's Friday! This is Anthony Day and here is another Sustainable Futures Report. Thanks and welcome to all my patrons. Welcome to listeners all over the world – a record number for last week’s episode. I must be doing something right. If I'm not, or if there is something I could do better, let me know at mail@anthony-day.com .
My objective with the Sustainable Futures Report is to bring you news about climate challenges and information about technical advances and plans and initiatives which can safeguard our planet while improving the quality of life for ourselves and for everybody else.
So what's new and sustainable this week?
This week the British government published its Clean Growth strategy. Australia updated its energy policy as well. Both will be controversial. One of the major oil companies has seen the light and finds it’s electric. Talking of seeing the light, a famous journalist seems to have had a Damascene conversion. Will the Daily Mail allow him to write for them ever again? Would you like a nuclear power station at the bottom of your street or would you prefer to rely on the tides? But there are more question marks over tidal power from Swansea Bay. Are the developers getting themselves in a hole? Electric cars seem to be coming to a bump in the road in Norway and in Canada there may be problems in the pipeline. How big is your carbon footprint? If you show me yours I’ll show you mine.

Clean Growth Strategy
Leading the way to a low carbon future
I’m often very negative about what governments do about developing a low emissions economy as opposed to what they say about it. After all, David Cameron initially promised the greenest government ever and only a few years later was talking about ‘that green crap'. George Osborne dismantled the differential road tax system which previously penalised cars with a high fuel consumption and high emissions. Now everyone pays the same in the UK, unless they are driving a pure electric vehicle.
Let’s hope that the climate growth strategy which the government published last week represents a true change of direction. They’ve printed a lot of the paragraphs in green ink, presumably to emphasise their commitment. But is there substance behind the show? 
There’s certainly a lot in this document. The executive summary alone runs to 15 pages. It talks about green finance, industrial efficiency, energy efficiency at home, low carbon transport, clean smart flexible power, efficient use of natural resources and the launch of an annual Green Great Britain Week. There are budgets and there are timescales and if the government commits to fulfil them they will certainly make a radical change for the better.
Some of the proposals could go further; some of them seem to be backtracking. For example, the plan is to develop world leading Green Finance capabilities, including setting up a Green Finance Taskforce. But didn’t we have a Green Investment Bank? The government changed its constitution so it didn’t have to concentrate on green investments and then sold it off to an Australian company. 
The government plans to demonstrate international leadership in carbon capture usage and storage (CCUS), by collaborating with global partners and investing up to £100 million in leading edge CCUS and industrial innovation to drive down costs. When George Osborne was Chancellor he announced a £1bn fund for the development of CCS, and then withdrew it at short notice.
The government will support the recycling of heat produced in industrial processes, to reduce business energy bills and benefit local communities. Can’t argue with that.
The government will invest around £162 million of public funds in research and innovation in Energy, Resource and Process efficiency, including up to £20 million to encourage switching to lower carbon fuels. It will support innovative energy technologies and processes with £14 million of further investment through the Energy Entrepreneurs Fund.
Warmer Homes
“We want all fuel poor homes to be upgraded to Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) Band C by 2030”, says the report,  “and our aspiration is for as many homes as possible to be EPC Band C by 2035 where practical, cost-effective and affordable.” 
2035 is some way off, but the challenge of raising as many homes as possible to Band C is not inconsiderable. British homes are some of the worst-insulated in Europe, some of them are very old and until recently building regulations have accepted relatively low levels of insulation. Not only are many British houses old, but many of them are historic.  Data shows that uptake of energy-saving technologies such as UPVC windows, new boilers or cavity wall insulation is lower in areas where many properties are subject to preservation policies. Analysis has found that £3.8bn savings could have been made on energy bills between 2006 and 2013 had energy consumption dropped in these areas at the same rate as in other neighbourhoods.
“Preservation policies play an important role in protecting our historic buildings but our research shows that there is a trade-off,” said Grantham Research Institute associate professor and report co-author Dr Charles Palmer. “The results highlight that preservation policies have inadvertently hindered some households from cutting down their energy use and their bills.”
The government intends to consult on strengthening energy performance standards for new and existing homes under Building Regulations, including future-proofing new homes for low carbon heating systems. And of course all households will have the opportunity to have a smart meter to help them save energy by the end of 2020. 
The ill-fated Green Deal was intended to address many of these issues. The government will have to come up with something in its place. Something that works and something that is less complex and financially attractive to householders. It may have to be an obligation on private landlords. 
Transport Developments
There’s a clear commitment to radically change the transport fleet, and it’s already been announced that the sale of new conventional petrol and diesel cars and vans will be ended by 2040. In addition the government will spend £1 billion supporting the take-up of ultra low emission vehicles (ULEV), by helping consumers to overcome the upfront cost of an electric car and by developing one of the best electric vehicle charging networks in the world. There will be £50 million for the Plug-in Taxi programme, which gives taxi drivers up to £7,500 of the purchase price of a new ULEV taxi, and this is alongside £14 million to support 10 local areas to deliver dedicated charge points for taxis.  There will be £100 million for a national programme of support for retrofitting or purchasing new low emission buses in England and Wales. The greenest journeys involve no power assistance at all, so there will be £1.2 billion to make cycling and walking the natural choice for shorter journeys.
There will be support for developing electric batteries and trials of Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) platoons, where one driver controls three or four vehicles on trunk routes, which could deliver significant fuel and emissions savings.
The section on transport mentions the new third runway at Heathrow. It doesn’t really explain how increased emissions from increased air traffic will fit in with emissions reduction targets, beyond suggesting that sufficient savings will be made elsewhere.
There will be measures to deliver better environmental outcomes from agriculture, there will be a new network of forests in England and a target of zero avoidable waste by 2050.
The government will work with businesses and civil society to introduce a “Green Great Britain” week to promote clean growth, starting in 2018.
Clean Energy
According to the document, “the cost of onshore wind power has fallen by 50 per cent since 2009, but the cost of offshore wind is falling even faster. In the UK, government investment has helped to deliver a 50 per cent drop in costs over just the last two years.” However the accompanying graph shows that the cost of onshore wind is still significantly lower than both offshore wind and solar PV, and competitive with gas.
Nevertheless, remembering that government supporters oppose onshore wind there are no plans to ease restriction on its development. 
There’s a passing reference to tidal power in the paper, but while the Hinkley C nuclear station is mentioned by name, the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon is not. Hinkley C is seen as a great opportunity, but I’m not convinced that a nuclear power station financed by the Chinese, already late, built by the French to an unproven design and contracted to supply electricity at twice the price of wind power is a sensible investment. 
Neighbourhood Nuclear
According to Private Eye, a satirical magazine with a reputation for far-reaching investigative journalism (issue 1454), the government has secret plans for neighbourhood nuclear power stations. Small Modular Reactors (SMR) are the sort of power plants found in nuclear submarines, and sailors live in close proximity to them for months without adverse effects. We have British expertise in the field. Rolls Royce is a major supplier. The units are largely built in a factory and delivered to site for final assembly and commissioning. There are no emissions in operation and there is a lot of waste heat from the process, which could be fed into a district heating system. Apparently the government has drawn up a list of potential sites in 50 cities around the UK. The list is secret, and it’s certainly not mentioned in the Clean Growth Strategy. Well, would you want a nuclear power station at the end of your road? Would you vote for the government that installed it?
Tidal Power
A decision on the tidal lagoon has been awaited for well over a year now. There are arguments about the true cost per megawatt hour of the power that the scheme will produce. It all turns on calculating the full working life of the project. There are also doubts about the construction itself. It will involve building a barrage out of millions of tons of stone. That stone will have to come from somewhere, and when it's been extracted there will be a very big hole left behind. The preferred quarry, currently disused,  appears to be in southwest Cornwall in an area of outstanding natural beauty and a site of special scientific interest. The material will be transported by sea - through a marine conservation area. If it all goes ahead, can we say that the power from the barrage will be really green?



All in all, I think the Clean Growth Strategy is to be welcomed. The key issue is whether this austerity-obsessed government will actually find the money to make it happen. One phrase I found in the report worried me: “Every action that we take to cut emissions must be done while ensuring our economy remains competitive.”

Australia in the Dark
Last September South Australia suffered serious power blackouts and this has led to the National government launching a new energy policy. First they commissioned Dr Finkel to review the energy sector, focusing on the sustainability of the current system, its environmental impacts, and affordability for consumers. Among other things he recommended a Clean Energy Target (CET) and demonstrated that a CET would lower power prices by subsidising investment in clean power generation, increasing the supply of electricity.
The government thought different (and who listens to experts anyway?) and has launched the National Energy Guarantee scheme. Under this plan energy companies must source a given percentage of their power from supplies which are available 24/7, which will include coal, gas, batteries and pumped hydro. In the short term at least, that’s a reprieve for coal. In the future there will be no subsidies for renewables and no obligation on energy companies to supply renewable energy. Even so, the government claims that the companies will develop sufficient renewable supplies to ensure that Australia meets its Paris Agreement emissions targets.
The government also claims that the scheme will reduce prices to consumers. Commentators suggest that this may only become significant in later years and will be negligible to start with.


News from Canada
Last week, Generation Energy, a two-day event, took place in Canada. I was able to listen live to part of the debate on line; a panel of provincial energy ministers. I was interested to learn that both Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador get 98% of their electricity from renewables and have enough to export to the US. I assume it’s hydropower.
I was already aware of the Canadian Tar Sands, and it seems it’s controversial over there as well as internationally. The ministers were defensive and emphasised the employment prospects and said that they were committed to responsible ways of extracting the oil and gas and transporting it safely. Jim Carr, the minister of natural resources in the Canadian cabinet, said that 99% of Canadian oil and gas exports went to the USA. He asked the audience whether they thought that was a good idea and nobody put a hand up. Apparently the plan is to develop alternative markets in Asia. This will require the development of pipelines and port facilities in the West. 
In the days after the conference, oil company Transcanada sparked controversy by announcing that it was abandoning plans for a pipeline to the East. The company did not specifically blame government regulations for the decision, but there is speculation that this was part of the reason, as well as difficulties in finding an acceptable route through indigenous tribal lands. 
Maybe with increasing pressures to replace oil with renewables and other fuels they were concerned that the pipeline would never repay the investment. Meanwhile development of TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline, part of a system delivering Canadian crude oil to Texan refineries in the US, is still uncertain. The scheme was blocked by the Obama administration, but Trump made a campaign promise to reverse that decision and did so in January. Now there is speculation that TransCanada will pull the plug on that one too, “for commercial reasons”. A decision is expected before the end of December.


Shell buys New Motion charging points
Another oil company, Shell, is clearly hedging its bets by buying a network of electric vehicle charging points. It has acquired The New Motion. According to Fleet Europe magazine, the company has been active since 2009, is an industry pioneer and operates more than 30,000 private electric charge points for homes and businesses in the Netherlands, Germany, France and the UK. It also operates a network of more than 50,000 public charge points across 25 European countries, with more than 100,000 registered charge cards. Until today, the company was not profitable, with 2016 resulting in a 4 million euro loss over a turnover of 13 million euros, due to the important investments The New Motion made in expanding its network. But as more and more car manufacturers announce electric models and a range of 250 - 300 miles becomes the norm, the market for electric vehicles is beginning to grow. 
The UK and other countries have announced that they will not permit the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles after 2040. That is not going to change any immediate purchasing decisions, but Paris announced last week that only electric vehicles will be permitted to enter the city from 2030. The pressure to the phase out fossil fuels is gradually becoming more urgent.
Bumpy roads in Norway
In Norway the government has announced increased taxes on electric cars. Norway has the highest number of electric cars per head, partly because it has masses of hydro-electricity and partly because the government pays a subsidy on electric cars; not just on purchase but on every year of ownership. Now the plan is to put a tax on new electric cars weighing over two tonnes. This is similar to the tax on new internal combustion cars and the logic is that these heavier cars cause more wear and tear to the roads. It means that the big Tesla will cost an extra $12,000 and there will be an extra $3,500 on the electric Jaguar launching next year. The new compact Tesla will be exempt from the charge, and so will the Vauxhall/Opel Ampera.
Norway is a paradox. It is awash with clean green energy which it exports into other parts of Europe. At the same time it has huge oil and gas reserves in the North Sea. Now it is being taken to court by Greenpeace, claiming that its plans to start drilling for oil in the Arctic are not only environmentally reckless but illegal. Watch this space.
 Carbon Footprint
What’s your carbon footprint? I just checked mine on carbonfootprint.com and it came out at 11.7 tonnes. Apparently the average for someone in an industrialised nation is 11 tonnes, but the average for the UK is only just over 7 tonnes. Even that is way, way above the sustainable level of about 2 tonnes. I’ll look into it in more detail in a future episode.

And finally…..
Peter Oborne is an outspoken journalist who for years has been a strident climate change denier. To everyone's surprise, probably including his own, he's changed his mind.
He’s reported as saying,
“I think I was rather too impressed by climate sceptics to begin with, “I’m in favour of scepticism, you see. But the evidence now is overwhelming. We have galloping climate change.
“I don’t accept the sceptical views that this is cyclical. This is an enormous issue and we have all been culpable. The right has been culpable for not treating this as a serious matter and I intend to start writing about it.”

Suddenly his views are diametrically opposed to those of the owner and the editor of the Daily Mail, the newspaper he most often writes for. If he writes about climate change I hope he finds an equally powerful publisher.

And that’s it…
And that is the Sustainable Futures Report for Friday 20th October, brought to you despite a desperately slow internet connection today and a computer which refused to re-open this document after I’d completed 95% of it. Fortunately I have a rolling back-up, so would only have lost the last half-hour’s work if I hadn’t been able to change my computer’s mind. (I switched it off and on again.)
The Sustainable Futures Report is brought to you without advertising, sponsorship or subsidy, but if you’d like to show your support please go to patreon.com/sfr and sign up for as little as $1 per month. That’s about 70p or something less than a euro, but it helps me pay my hosting and transcription costs.
If you need a keynote speaker, a conference chair or a host for your awards ceremony you know where I am. Have voice, will travel. Contact me about this or anything else on mail@anthony-day.com.
I’m Anthony Day.
That was the Sustainable Futures Report.
There will be another next week.
Have a good one until then!



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