Dustin Benton
@dbenton.bsky.social
3.8K followers 130 following 210 posts
Sustainability MD Forefront Advisers. Prev:@GreenAllianceUK; Chief Analyst @food_strategy. Generic personal achievement. Folksy identifier. Humblebrag. #hashtag @[email protected]
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Reposted by Dustin Benton
overshootpod.bsky.social
Overshoot Episode 1: Uncharted Territory

If the world didn’t win, has it lost?

We meet the underdog diplomats who helped the world set the 1.5°C goal, and the champion sailors who can help us set a course for navigating what comes next

Listen to episode one now: open.spotify.com/episode/1bJl...
PART 1: Uncharted Territory
open.spotify.com
dbenton.bsky.social
The question for me is less whether you can, but whether you should. The UK promised investors that the RO renewables would operate according to a set formula. The best alternative to RO I have seen is Imperial's Pot Zero idea, but when govt tried it voluntarily nobody signed up...
dbenton.bsky.social
- CfDs: £29/y but varies (would break contract law)
- ETS costs vary but killing the ETS means no EU electricity deal, which might even put bills up in net terms.

Of these, only CPS doesn't involve retrospective change that would destroy investor confidence.
dbenton.bsky.social
Claire Coutinho would scrap carbon/renewables costs to save £126/y on bills. What might go?
- Carbon Price Support: £26/y (main loser is the taxpayer)
- Renewables Obligation: £86/y (retrospective change- v bad for investment)
- Small scale FiTs: £20/y (retrospective- bad for small solar investors)
dbenton.bsky.social
Does the example of Pakistan not make you think maybe demand growth is instead met by solar in sunbelt countries like Vietnam? Much more spare capacity in the solar supply chain.
Reposted by Dustin Benton
cleanpowerdave.bsky.social
Grid battery prices fell by 40% last year.

Evidence is mounting they falling by around ANOTHER 40% THIS YEAR🤯🤯🤯
dbenton.bsky.social
Well, USMCA (RIP NAFTA) still just about exists, at least for now...
dbenton.bsky.social
I'm looking forward to tea production stats from English tea growers (shout out to www.dartmoorestatetea.com, tregothnan.co.uk, and peterstontea.com) that look like this chart...
dbenton.bsky.social
Why are food prices still on the up? Come on BBC - it’s global heating. Those droughts and heatwaves that raise food prices are 10x to 100x more likely because of the carbon emissions we’re putting into the atmosphere.
BBC news saying food price rise because of heatwaves and drought World weather attribution study for the June 2025 heatwave
dbenton.bsky.social
You know this tweet is not targeted at people who do maths...
Reposted by Dustin Benton
akshatrathi.bsky.social
"In almost every area of the energy transition, one country dominates: China. Wind power, where the People’s Republic still has less than half the global market, is a rare exception. President Donald Trump is doing his best to change that." www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
America’s Wind Crusade Hands an Industry to China
It’s the one energy transition corner the country isn’t already dominating. Trump is doing his best to change that.
www.bloomberg.com
dbenton.bsky.social
Very interesting CCS study: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The headline is a large reduction in potential storage, but there's still plenty of carbon storage to keep warming well below 2c.

It does pour a bit of cold water on European storage - only the UK and Norway are major players.
www.nature.com
Reposted by Dustin Benton
danambergstrom.bsky.social
Antarctica is undergoing abrupt changes which most likely will significantly intensify in the future. Caused by climate change, they span ice sheet, sea ice, ocean & life itself .
These changes are a clarion call to all of us, ‘cause what happens in Antarctica affects us all. 1/
From sea ice to ocean currents, Antarctica is now undergoing abrupt changes – and we’ll all feel them
The vast ice of Antarctica has long seemed impregnable. But sudden changes are arriving – from shrinking sea ice to melting ice sheets and slowing ocean currents.
theconversation.com
dbenton.bsky.social
Yes, Spanish wages are a bit lower, but I think the difference between engineering salaries is small. My sense is that the UK creates lots of little veto points in the consenting/construction process, driving up cost. This happened much less in UK offshore wind, which has been a success story.
Reposted by Dustin Benton
chrisbaraniuk.com
NEW: I wrote about engineered wood! Including a new, ultra strong version.

Using more timber in construction - rather than concrete and steel - could help reduce the carbon footprint on buildings.

(Am happy that my editor used my headline, at the top of the article!)

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
New types of engineered wood are ready for building sites
New ways are being found to make wood even stronger and more versatile in construction.
www.bbc.co.uk
dbenton.bsky.social
For the £49bn cost of a 3rd runway at Heathrow, the Spanish could build more than 3 high speed rail lines.
- London-Glasgow in 3h (linked to HS1 to Paris)
- Bristol-Newcastle in 2h
- London-St Ives in 2.5h

Plus they'd be near zero carbon. Explain to me why a 3rd runway is good value?
dbenton.bsky.social
Don't worry - there's no way the EU buys that much.
dbenton.bsky.social
Didn't Farage promise to reopen coal mines?
dbenton.bsky.social
Yes, but what market change would you prefer to lower gas / electricity prices? eg you could do an Ed Davey and force RO renewables into CfDs. You cld do an Iberian Exception and cut gas power revenues (or buy CCGTs up and run them at a loss). You cld move levies off elec and onto gas/taxpayers. etc