Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

On 15 October, the European Investment Bank meets to decide its policy on fossil fuels. The hand of history is on its shoulder

And if the EIB does act, it will send a strong signal to markets and to other lenders. For almost a decade now, observers have understood that restricting the flow of money to the fossil fuel industry is a key part of the climate fight. That’s why endowments and portfolios worth more than $11tn have begun divesting their fossil fuel stocks; last month the University of California system became the latest big player to join in, scrubbing its $80bn endowment and pension fund of fossil fuel stocks. Heck, even a major American utility announced that it was divesting its pension fund because it could see where the future lay.

The EIB would also be doing a service to everyone who will be hurt financially as the fossil fuel industry founders. As the governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, began warning some years ago, there are massive “stranded assets” represented by oil and gas reserves that can’t be burned if we are to meet our climate targets. This “carbon bubble” hangs over our markets like the housing bubble of a decade ago: if the EIB backs away from new fossil fuel lending, it will help with the slow deflation of that bubble, lessening pressure on the system.

But the biggest reason for the EIB to take this step is simple: it responds to the cries of both young people and scientists.

Anyone who believes in physics and chemistry knows that the time for change is here – indeed, it’s past due.

The fifteenth of October is a crucial day in the most important fight the planet has ever faced, and a sign of whether Europe’s governments, particularly those of Germany and Italy, who insiders report have been strongly against a fossil-free EIB policy, will respond with open hearts to the outpouring of hope we have seen in the past weeks.

Renewable energy sources provided more electricity to UK homes and businesses than fossil fuels for the first time over the last quarter, according to new research.

The renewables record was set in the third quarter of this year after its share of the electricity mix rose to 40%.

It is the first time that electricity from British windfarms, solar panels and renewable biomass plants has surpassed fossil fuels since the UK’s first power plant fired up in 1882.

The new milestone confirms predictions made by National Grid that 2019 will be the first year since the Industrial Revolution that zero-carbon electricity – renewables and nuclear – overtakes gas and coal-fired power.