Electric double-decker bus erupts into flames in Wimbledon during rush hour

London hybrid double-decker [image credit: buses world news]

Scary. Best wear running shoes when using vehicles powered wholly or partly by lithium batteries (full details not yet reported). — Update: the bus manufacturer is Switch.
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A bus has dramatically caught fire on Wimbledon high street this morning, with residents reporting a loud bang and thick smoke.

Videos and photos showed clouds of smoke billowing from a red double-decker bus on Wimbledon Hill Road and Alwyne Road. ‘We heard a huge bang. We were terrified’ Max Pashley, a local resident, told City AM.

There have been no reported injuries, according to the Met, while road closures and cordons are expected to remain in place for some time. “We thank the local community for their patience and cooperation as emergency services work at the scene,” a spokesperson said.

Swedish snow chaos leaves 1,000 vehicles trapped on main Euro route as temperatures fall as low as -43°C

A chance to counterbalance a few of the ‘rapid warming’/’boiling planet’ summer outbursts of climate obsessives. The BBC says a weather station in northern Sweden recorded its coldest night (-43.6C) for 25 years, i.e. since 1979 when satellite weather data became widely available.
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People who got trapped in 1,000 vehicles in heavy snow for more than 24 hours have been evacuated, Swedish authorities say.

Rescuers worked through the night to free people stuck on the main E22 road in the Skane area of southern Sweden, reports BBC News.

Many of those trapped were evacuated by rescue teams and told to return to their cars later.

The travel chaos occurred amid plummeting winter temperatures across the Nordic countries.

UK climate minister mocked for 6,313-mile round trip by plane for ‘crunch’ Rwanda vote

Airport scene
[image credit: Wikipedia]

From one so-called crisis to another. Net zero CO2 obsession takes a back seat to pressing political needs.
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The UK’s minister for climate will make a 6,313-mile round trip to take part in the government’s crunch vote on Rwanda, Number 10 has confirmed.

Graham Stuart has been in Dubai for the COP28 summit, where leaders from around the world have been discussing the best ways to tackle the climate crisis, says Sky News.

But key talks have stalled over commitments to phase out fossil fuels, with negotiations carrying on through the night to try and find agreement between different nations.
. . .
NGOs (non-governmental organisations) at COP have accused the UK of going “AWOL” at a key time, claiming the British government had let millions of people down.

Confirming the decision to summon Mr Stuart, the prime minister’s official spokesman said: “Ministers have a number of roles, the negotiations continue and he will return to COP.”

The return flight is the equivalent of travelling from London to Edinburgh and back 10 times, and will emit around two tonnes of CO2, according to environmental charity Treedom.

Asked about the carbon emissions from the flights, the spokesman added: “This government is not anti-flying.” [Talkshop comment – especially if it’s illegal immigrants to Rwanda].

“We don’t lecture the public to that regard. The most important thing is the outcomes of COP, which minister Stuart is obviously leading for the UK on.”
. . .
The return of Mr Stuart was the subject of ridicule from shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper as the debate began on Mr Sunak’s bill.

She told MPs: “The climate minister called back from the Dubai COP before the vote?

“Well, I guess they can say at least one flight has taken off as a result of this legislation.”

Full article here.

Oil-rich Azerbaijan tipped to host COP29 climate talks

The Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline (green) is one of several pipelines running from Baku.

Azerbaijan is one of the birthplaces of the oil industry (Wikipedia). It was part of the Soviet Union from 1922-1991. EU countries were unsurprisingly blocked as hosts by Russia. Maybe there aren’t too many ‘renewables-rich’ countries (if such a category even exists) elsewhere, seeking to be the host next time.
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DUBAI, Dec 8 (Reuters) – Azerbaijan is tipped to host next year’s U.N. climate summit, after striking a late deal with longtime adversary Armenia over its bid.

While some diplomats said other countries including Russia – which has blocked other host candidates – were expected to back Baku’s bid, there was no official confirmation from Moscow on Friday.

The issue is still being negotiated at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai.

The big chill: flights suspended at Glasgow Airport – as warnings for snow and ice in place across UK

One day into meteorological winter and already global warming has gone missing. As ‘cold health alerts’ are activated, renewable energy has all but dried up leaving gas to take the strain of electricity generation. Even coal is outperforming wind power.
Update: Flights resume at Glasgow Airport [announced at 1020 am].
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Weather warnings for snow and ice are in place across swathes of the UK as temperatures plummeted below freezing overnight, reports Sky.com.

Forecasters have warned the wintry conditions could affect some road and rail journeys with icy surfaces posing the risk of injury from slips and falls.

Glasgow Airport has suspended flights due to heavy snow, with passengers urged to check with their airline for updates.

Why the Dutch election result spells trouble for Europe’s climate efforts

Dutch wind turbines

Climate mythology on the back foot. Some people at least are not keen on being frogmarched into costly and disruptive ‘net zero’ energy policies for more pain than gain, while having their reliability of supply reduced and farmers demonised.
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The far-right party that surged to victory in Wednesday’s Dutch election wants to ditch all efforts to stop climate change, says Politico.

About a quarter of Dutch voters backed Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party (PVV), whose platform includes exiting the Paris climate accord, dismantling domestic green legislation, and scrapping measures to reduce planet-warming emissions.

While right-wing politicians from Scandinavia to Italy have won big over the past year, this is the first time a party openly calling for an end to the green transition has won a national election in the European Union.

How wind turbines are blinding the RAF’s vital North Sea radars

Hornsea Offshore Wind Project, Yorkshire, England
[image credit: nsenergybusiness.com]

Is the Government scoring a major own goal in pursuit of its fantasy climate goals? Hoped-for ‘energy security’ from wind power is looking further away than ever.
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Britain’s race to net zero risks blinding crucial radars protecting the UK from incursions over the North Sea amid fears that Russia will launch a campaign of sabotage.

Offshore wind farms blades interfere with radar signals and there are concerns that plans for a significant expansion of turbines in the North Sea by the end of the decade will cause problems for the Royal Air Force (RAF).

The Ministry of Defence has spent £18m over the past three years trying to stop wind farm blades from scrambling radar readings, the Telegraph can reveal.

However, none of this public spending has, so far, yielded a concrete solution to the problem.

Greenpeace loses legal challenge to UK’s new North Sea oil and gas licenses

North Sea gas rig [image credit: safety4sea.com]

Trying to subvert democracy with ‘climate lawfare’ fails again.
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LONDON (Reuters)– Britain’s decision to authorise new licences for oil and gas exploration in the North Sea was lawful, London’s High Court ruled on Thursday, dismissing a legal challenge by Greenpeace, reports Yahoo News.

The environmental campaign group had argued Britain’s failure to assess the greenhouse gases produced by consuming oil and gas – so-called end-use or downstream emissions – rendered its offshore energy plan unlawful.

But lawyers representing Britain’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said at a hearing in July that ministers were not required to assess end-use emissions, though they nonetheless considered them.

Judge David Holgate rejected Greenpeace’s case in a written ruling on Thursday.

Full report here.

Chris Packham issues legal challenge against Rishi Sunak

Photosynthesis [image credit: Nefronus @ Wikipedia]

Climate lawfare by carbophobes again. ‘The ball is in your court, Prime Minister’. At the same time the Scottish Nationalists have reported the PM to the police over comments in his conference speech.
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Chris Packham has sent a legal challenge to the Prime Minister over his decision to delay the phase-out of new gas boilers and petrol and diesel cars, reports The National (via Yahoo News).

If Rishi Sunak does not reverse the changes he announced last month, Packham said he will apply to the High Court to challenge this in a judicial review – arguing that such a delay is unlawful given the Government is required to follow a series of carbon budget plans on the way to becoming net zero by 2050.

The Prime Minister said the sale of new fossil fuel cars will not be phased out in 2030 but in 2035 and that only 80% of gas boilers will need to be phased out by that date, instead of 100%.

Six companies chosen for UK nuclear tech contest

SMR transporter

There’s a yawning gap of a decade or so between the end of UK coal-fired power stations in late 2024 and the hoped-for arrival of its potential replacement, new SMR nuclear power.
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Six companies have been selected to advance in the Small Modular Reactor (SMR) competition, reports Energy Live News.

Among the chosen contenders are industry giants like EDF, Rolls Royce and GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy International LLC.

The SMR competition aligns with the government’s strategic plan to revitalise nuclear power.

The government’s ambition is to have up to a quarter of all UK electricity generated from nuclear power by 2050.

Rosebank: Biggest untapped UK oil field approved by regulators – net-zero climate obsessives chew the wasp

North Sea oil platform [image credit: matchtech.com]

Opponents don’t have much to say about where they think the essential oil and gas should come from, but churn out the usual dogmatic moans anyway. Even by 2050 under net-zero policies, large quantities of these products are still expected to be needed keep the country functioning. Renewables just don’t scale up enough to replace them.
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Summary (by BBC News).

— The UK’s largest untapped oil field has been approved by regulators

— It’s estimated that Rosebank, 80 miles west of Shetland, could produce 300 million barrels of oil [or more]

— The UK government welcomes the decision, saying it will raise billions of pounds and “make us more secure against tyrants like Putin”

— “As we make the transition to renewables, we will still need oil and gas – it makes sense to use our own,” says Rishi Sunak

— But Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf says he’s “disappointed”, while the Green Party calls the decision “morally obscene”

BBC Live Reporting here.
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Sky News reports:
The GMB Union agrees with the government’s approach to granting new oil and gas licences in the North Sea and similarly believes it will make the UK less reliant on imported gas.

Their general secretary, Gary Smith, even took a swipe at Labour’s stance, claiming: “We need a plan, not bans.”
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Sunak considering weakening key net zero policies

Funny how unpopularity and an approaching election year can have an effect even on climate-obsessed politicians who love fantasising about ‘dealing with climate change’.
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Rishi Sunak is considering weakening some of the government’s key green commitments in a major policy shift, says BBC News.

It could include delaying a ban on the sales of new petrol and diesel cars and phasing out gas boilers, multiple sources have told the BBC.

The PM is preparing to set out the changes in a speech in the coming days.

Volkswagen cuts jobs as demand for EVs plunges

VW ID.3 [image credit: Alexander Migl @ Wikipedia]

Subsidies, wealthy buyers and niche markets only get EV makers so far, it seems. The old problems are still there – initial cost, range anxiety, slow charging, battery life etc. Moaning about humans supposedly having adverse effects on the weather turns out to be a weak selling point for the mass market.
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Volkswagen is cutting almost 300 roles at a factory in Germany as demand for electric cars dwindles, reports The Telegraph.

The redundancies are being carried out at the car giant’s plant in Zwickau, where a further 2,000 temporary workers are also at risk of losing their jobs.

Volkswagen’s Zwickau factory only produces electric vehicles, which have fallen in popularity due to high inflation and faltering government support. [Talkshop comment – is that crutch expected to go on forever?]

Blow for UK ‘net zero’ plans as zero firms bid for offshore wind contracts

Hornsea wind project

Much hand-wringing by the climate obsession lobby, but there it is – zero interest in bidding for government offshore wind business, as expected. The government seems to have two choices for more part-time offshore wind – give up or pay up. If it pays up, the already dubious claims of cheapness are toast.
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The government’s green energy plans have been dealt a blow after firms snubbed an auction for contracts to run new offshore wind sites, says Sky News.

There were successful bids for onshore wind, solar, tidal and geothermal projects to supply the grid with electricity.

However, there were none for offshore turbines, which provide the backbone of the UK’s renewables system.

Insiders had warned the process had struggled to attract bidders because the government has set the maximum price generators can receive as too low, failing to reflect the rising costs of manufacturing and installing turbines.

Road to nowhere: San Francisco driverless cars cause street blockage chaos ‘due to nearby music festival’

Image credit: Chris Wensel / BBC

H/T LBC’s World of Woke

This wasn’t an isolated incident. The city’s fire department is not amused by errant no-go electric cars: ‘not ready for prime time’.
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A controversial driverless car firm was blasted after around 10 of its autonomous vehicles broke down and blocked a San Francisco street, reports the Daily Mail.

Just a day after securing the green light to flood the streets of the crime-ridden city with even more of its Chevy Bolts, ten of Cruise’s cars suffered WiFi failures which brought a street in the North Beach district to a stand-still.

The firm thinks a nearby music festival may have overloaded telecommunications networks.

A woman who filmed the drama could be heard claiming 10 of the hatchbacks had stopped.

Sunak unveils expansion of North Sea oil and gas drilling, opponents prefer imports

North Sea oil platform [image credit: matchtech.com]

Opponents say the UK should be cutting fossil fuel production but ignore the reality of continuing demand, meaning imports would have to increase. All they do is whine about the climate and call for ever more part-time wind power, which isn’t a direct replacement anyway. The carbon capture announcement is a bit of a joke when heavily subsidised but supposedly ‘green’ Drax wood burners are the UK’s biggest emitters of CO2.
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Summary – from BBC News.

The government will issue hundreds of new oil and gas licences for the North Sea, Rishi Sunak confirms

The first will be issued this autumn – with at least 100 in the next round

“We’re choosing to power up Britain from Britain,” says Sunak

And he says even when the UK reaches net zero in 2050, it will still need oil and gas

Scientists Say More Marine Life Is Greening The Oceans, So Media Freak Out

Cumulus clouds over the Atlantic Ocean [image credit: Tiago Fioreze @ Wikipedia]

Knee-jerk alarm goes up yet another notch in the climate-obsessed media. Look what *you’ve done*, they try to insinuate.
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Climate change is benefiting life in the oceans so much that ocean color is becoming noticeably greener as a result, scientists reported this week.

Bodies of water with little life tend to be bluer, the scientists observed, while bodies of water rich in life tend to be greener.

Responding to the wonderful news about the recent burst of ocean life, the media have instead sounded a breathless alarm leading people to believe that climate change making the oceans greener is bad, says Climate Realism (via Climate Change Dispatch).

King Charles III starts ‘climate clock’ countdown to 2030 after repeatedly changing timetable

Here we go again. Do this, don’t do that, and somehow the globe will cool down a bit.
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King Charles III helped activate a “Climate Clock” at a London forum on Wednesday, counting down the time until 2030, the alleged time allotted to avoid the worst effects of climate change, despite the UK King offering several different timetables in years past, says Just the News.

The Climate Clock countdown began at the Climate Innovation Forum during London’s 2023 Climate Action Week. Founder and CEO of Climate Action, Nick Henry, said it serves as a “visual reminder of the urgency of the climate crisis,” according to Fox News.

“TIME IS RUNNING OUT” and “ACT TODAY SAVE TOMORROW” were just a few of the interchanging slogans on the jumbotron that displayed the Climate Clock. The button to activate the clock was pressed by London Mayor Sadiq Khan while accompanying King Charles III on stage at the event.

Solar panels worth £5,500 stolen from energy farm – highlighting a growing crime problem

Valuable technology in largely unattended and sometimes remote country areas inevitably attracts attention from criminal elements. Increasing security costs money of course.
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Solar panels worth around £5,500 were stolen from an energy farm near Wellingborough, reports Energy Live News.

The theft occurred between Tuesday 20th June, at 10:30pm and Wednesday 21st June, at 3 am.

The incident took place when “unknown suspects” entered Chelveston Renewable Energy Park, located in Chelveston Airfield and “stole 52 solar panels from the site”.

Northamptonshire Police have launched an appeal for witnesses and information regarding the theft.

Siemens Energy Shares Tumble 31% as Wind Turbine Troubles Exposed

A billion euros worth of trouble – they wouldn’t want that to be renewable. All is not well in wind turbine land.
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Siemens Energy saw $6.3 billion wiped off its market capitalization on Friday after warning that the impact of quality problems at its Siemens Gamesa wind turbine business would be felt for years, says OE Digital.

The group scrapped its 2023 profit outlook late on Thursday after a review of its wind turbine division exposed deeper-than-expected problems that could cost more than 1 billion euros.

“This is a disappointing and severe setback,” Siemens Gamesa CEO Jochen Eickholt told journalists on a call.